Month: May 2017
Check out this documentary, Sunday, May 28, 3 p.m. on KCET-HD. The producer interviewed me about fly fishing, and I missed it the first time around (The down side of being too anxious to get rid of your cable TV!). All I know is legal fishing season is almost here, starting in the recreational zones Memorial Day. Get your rod, reel and license and get on out there!
Here’s the blurb:
“A Concrete River: Reviving The Waters of Los Angeles” chronicles the importance of the Los Angeles River culturally, economically and ecologically. Supported by a matching challenge grant from Newman’s Own Foundation, the independent foundation created by the late actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, this special telecast takes viewers on a historical tour of the Los Angeles River starting with the native Tongva tribes that lived along its banks before the Spanish arrived, all the way through to the present day.
Co-hosted by Armenian filmmaker Carla Garapedian (Assoc. Producer, “The Promise”) and actor Raphael Sbarge, the special presentation of the documentary treats viewers to various popular activities along the LA River including bird watching, kayaking and fly fishing. The 51-mile-long concrete water basin protects the city of Los Angeles from seasonal floods and, with the enthusiasm and support of many Angelenos, the river is roaring back to life.
By John Goraj
Guest Contributor
Hey Everyone,
I just wanted to touch base with you all and give you a quick update about what’s been going on the Native Trout Restoration Project.
Last week, we had a large event with the FedEx Cares volunteers, 48 people total doing a stream survey/invasive species mapping in the Gould Mesa and in Switzer Falls areas. We measured stream depth, stream temperature and measured invasive plant patches, in addition to doing habitat assessments.
It was a great success and I couldn’t help thinking of all of you and how great it would be if we all could accomplish something like this together?
So, anyway, I’m going to work on that and I will let you know some dates.
Below is some of the data we collected with the FedEx Cares group.
I encourage you all to go up to Arroyo Seco and look for trout in the meantime – there are several big pools in the Switzer Falls and Bear Canyon areas.
Thank you all for your time and commitment to conservation!
John Goraj is the Native Trout Program Manager at the Arroyo Seco Foundation.
The old sign.(Courtesy Forest Camping)
And the new. (Courtesy Pasadena Now)
Just as millions joined women’s marches around the country in January to protest the election of President Donald Trump, now more than 100 hunting and fishing business owners and sporting organizations, and a California state congresswoman are reacting to the president’s executive order to review the Antiquities Act.
While the earlier protests were shouted into megaphones and emblazoned on signs, this one is quieter, in the form of a letter to Congress and a renewed attempt at legislation.
” We are writing in support of the Antiquities Act of 1906 and to request that it be used responsibly and in a way that supports the continuation of hunting and fishing in America,” begins the letter, signed by multiple companies across the country, including Abel, Charlton and Ross reels in Colorado, but only one firm in California.
Four NGOs have lead the effort, Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, the National Wildlife Federation, Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and Trout Unlimited.
“The outdoor industry accounts for $887 billion in consumer spending and 7.6 million jobs, making it one of the largest economic sectors in the country,” said Jen Ripple, editor in chief of DUN Magazine and a Tennessee resident. “Much of this economic output depends on public lands. Tools for conservation like the Antiquities Act will help ensure that America’s public lands remain not only a great place to hunt and fish but also an important pillar of the hunting and fishing industry.”
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, currently in Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, must produce an interim report in June and make a recommendation on that national monument, and then issue a final report within 120 days.
According to NewsMax, Trump said the protections imposed by his predecessors “unilaterally put millions of acres of land and water under strict federal control, eliminating the ability of the people who actually live in those states to decide how best to use that land.”
The land-controls have “gotten worse and worse and worse, and now we’re going to free it up, which is what should have happened in the first place,” Trump said at a signing ceremony marking the executive order.
Trump accused Obama in particular of exploiting the 1906 Antiquities Act in an “egregious abuse of federal power,” adding that he was giving power “back to the states and to the people, where it belongs.”
In December, shortly before leaving office, Obama infuriated Utah Republicans by creating the Bears Ears National Monument on more than 1 million acres of land that’s sacred to Native Americans and home to tens of thousands of archaeological sites, including ancient cliff dwellings.
Meanwhile, closer to home the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument, created by Obama in 2014, is one of 27 under review, which are mostly in western states. Last week, Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27) reintroduced the San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act, according to Pasadena Now.
“President Trump has declared an open assault on our nation’s natural resources and outdoor spaces in favor of energy companies and oil exploration. Well I will not let him threaten our rivers, forests, wildlife, and outdoor opportunities in the San Gabriel Mountains. That is why I am proud to be reintroducing this bill to establish a National Recreation Area and expand monument designation boundaries, Chu said.”
At the time of its creation, some local conservation groups, including the Arroyo Seco Foundation, wondered why the national monument borders precluded some areas of the San Gabriel Mountains.
In an interview with Jeff Vail, supervisor of the Angeles National Forest and the national monument, that appeared in Sunday’s Pasadena Star-News, readers got a taste for what changes have occurred within the monument.
“The first year, we had five field rangers, last year, we had eight or 10 and this year we are upping that to 14,” he told columnist Steve Scauzillo. “We have a volunteer coordinator, Chris Fabbro. He has been in place now for close to two years. We have new positions, a partnership coordinator and conservation/education coordinator.”
According to Vail, last year Congress appropriated $33 million to his budget, while corporations have donated $5 million since 2014.
If you want to weigh in on why this national monument so close to 14 million Angelinos is important, comments may be submitted online after May 12 at http://www.regulations.gov by entering “DOI-2017-0002” in the search bar and clicking “Search,” or by mail to Monument Review, MS-1530, U.S. Department of the Interior, 1849 C Street NW, Washington, DC 20240.
According to the Interior Department, this is the first-ever formal comment period for Antiquities Act monuments.
See you on the river, Jim Burns
Two years ago, I got pretty excited by the cover of The Drake, showing the ultimate in fish handling: this salt-water fav actually stayed totally submerged, with the fisher’s hands and rod in the background. I thought that was a model for handing catch-and-release fish, and one that made me question some of my own fish wrangling, especially when taking that all-important beauty shot.
Over the weekend, I received the latest The Flyfish Journal with the above cover. Doesn’t it look like this cutthroat trout is getting squeezed? The magazine features a bunch of excellent pictures from fishers in a photo article called “Rises,” but to promote this kind of fish handling on the cover I find questionable.
From that 2015 piece, something to ponder from Gordon M. Wickstrom, the author of “The History of Fishing for Trout with Artificial Flies in Britain and America: A Chronology of Five Hundred Years, 1496 to 2000,” who wrote about six periods in fly fishing for the Orvis News blog in 2011:
“In closing, allow me to play the prophet: I think that, in this New Period of angling, we are part of an important cultural shift toward a deeper humanity and mercy of the good Earth. We may find ourselves living quite differently, living better with less, with a greater delicacy, clarity, balance and honestly. Fishing a fly on a clear, cold stream may well serve as a working model and inspiration for what we want. It shows forth qualities — environmental, psychological, social, economic and political — that we need to incorporate into the future.”
See you on the river, Jim Burns
Keepemwetfishing
lariverflyfishing 
Wickstrom was right. We’re entering an age where understanding environment is the key to survival. Those who have a reverence for nature will have to set a template for the future. To what degree we learn the hard way remains to be seen.