Events

LA Times Food Bowl: Los Angeles River giveback?
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(Courtesy LA Times Food Bowl)

As I looked through the offerings for the first LA Times Food Bowl, post Jonathan Gold, I found this:

In 2007, LA unveiled a plan to revitalize the river and restore the watershed as a place for Angelenos to gather and connect. Event participants will see the results and learn how the plan has progressed from this experience, featuring chefs from the LA area. Chefs Neal Fraser (Redbird), Austin Cobb (The Strand House) and Zach Pollack (Alimento and Cosa Buona) will help create the meal in this celebration of the river’s revival. A four-course, family-style, long-table dinner is preceded by a cocktail hour. And a portion of the proceeds will benefit River LA.

The price seems outrageous to me — $265 — especially as the event’s listing is in the “giveback” category. Although I couldn’t find a definition for this category on the website, I suppose it broadly means giving back to the community.

Other givebacks include the Santa Monica Farmers Markets visit, billed as an education of how to shop seasonally, based on CalFresh, the state program that provides food assistance to low-income Californians. This tour includes partner Hunger Action Los Angeles that “can connect people to food resources and provide information on how to help combat food insecurity in your community.” The event is free.

That same day — May 1 — includes another giveback titled The Immigrant Dinners, in which “an immigrant friend of the restaurant will share his or her family recipes.” The website doesn’t mention a price for this event.

A few days later, there’s another free farmers market event at the Crenshaw Farmers’ Market that again explores CalFresh and includes “SEE-LA farmers markets will host art projects on the same day that the Department of Public Social Services will be on-site to sign up eligible participants for CalFresh Awareness Month.”

And in the Pasadena area, there’s a giveaway event beginning May 6 entitled Pasadena Restaurant Week. Costs vary by restaurant, according to the website, but apparently part of the fee ” will be providing financial support for public high school student internships with a Pasadena-based non-profit dedicated to commercial food waste.”

Other givebacks include:

— Taste of the Nation for no Kid Hungry. Price $115.

— The Pie Hole Wheel of Pie-zes. Price $1.

— Kirby Street Project. Price $175.

— Chefs Timothy Hollingsworth and Charles Michel from Netflix’s “The Final Table.” Price $85 without wine.

— Urban Gardening and the Future of Scones. Price: $30.

— Fundraising Dinner with Chor-Man. $55.

So, you get the point — some of these events are for charitable causes and some, such as the Weekend of Prosciutto di Parma ($50), seem based more on public relations, I mean, awareness.

Question: If I do pony up for the $265, will my money go to awareness about a fishable river? I participated in 2016 Friends of the LA River’s lower river fish study and wonder when the upper river study will be completed.

Will my money go toward asking Congress when the billion-plus dollars to restore the habitat of more than 10 miles of the river will be forthcoming?

Or will my money go toward connecting the LA River to the home of steelhead trout in the San Gabriel Mountains?

What I find on the River LA website is a picture of Gov. Gavin Newsom with Supervisor Hilda Solis and “world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.” What’s missing is an image of restored nature I crave in the middle of Los Angeles, the solitude of throwing a fly line toward rising carp, the simple tranquility that is the birthright of urban kids who grow up near its banks.

As Mayor Eric Garcetti recently wrote in a letter imploring Congress to act on the funded promised for the Los Angeles Ecological Restoration Project, ‘“The L.A. River is a national treasure running through the heart of our city — and a destination where Angelenos and visitors alike can interact with nature and connect our storied history with a more sustainable future.” 

Think carefully before spending your money and see you on the river, Jim Burns

Where: The Los Angeles River (Location reveal when you sign up)
When: Tuesday, May 28, 4-9 p.m.
Cost: $265

 

News

A ‘concrete’ way of eradicating Asian carp?
BassOmatic
Bassmaster asks: “Will carp-crete prove as
popular as the classic Bass-O-Matic” in the old
“Saturday Night Live” skit by Dan Aykroyd?

(Reposted from The Rural Blog)

The use of market forces to fight Asian carp may be taking a hard turn. By turning the fish into concrete.

For several years, companies in the mid-Mississippi River valley have been buying and processing the fish, largely for the Chinese market. To expand the market and get more anglers interested in fishing for them, civil engineer James Nobles developed a way to use by-products from processing as an ingredient in concrete.

“The main thing is to make (carp-crete) profitable for the fishermen so we can bring more people in to catch these fish and get them out of this lake,” said Western Kentucky marina operator Wayne Breedlove, who hosted a pour of “carp-crete” this week, covered by Laurel Black of The Paducah Sun. “It’s getting to the point where it’s dangerous for these boaters.”

“Asian carp pose a threat to the $1.2 billion fishing and recreational boating industries in Western Kentucky, and are wreaking similar havoc in Tennessee,” Black notes. “The carp consume forage that popular species, like bass, rely on to survive, and one species is known to jump out of the water when startled, potentially causing injury to boaters. If carp-crete proves successful, it would help make catching Asian carp more lucrative for commercial fishermen. Commercial harvesting is the best way to manage the Asian carp population, according to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.”

Breedlove told Black that cost has proven to be carp-crete’s only drawback so far. “The carp ash for the carp-crete was produced in Southern Illinois, which is also testing the product,” she reports.

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Calendar Item: Celebrate Rio de Los Angeles State Park for Earth Day

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Calendar Item: Come hear Kesley Gallagher today at Orvis

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Call to Action

Call to Action: Make your voice heard about proposed new CDFW regs

Fishing organizations with a conservation focus, including the apolitical Pasadena Casting Club, Trout Unlimited and Cal Trout are all asking fishers to make their voices heard about the proposed California Department of Fish & Wildlife regs, which would simplify their complex system with major consequences for many of the waters we love.

For example, the Golden Trout Wilderness, home to our endangered state fish, would be open to a five-fish take and no gear requirements!

Or Hot Creek? Under the proposed regulations, it would lose its “barbless artificial flies only” designation in favor of “barbless artificial lures only.” We all know the difference between a No. 16 green scud and a Rapala DT armed with two barbless treble hooks.

Can you imagine what either gemlike area would fish like after a couple of years of that kind of pressure?

Know this is one issue both fly and spin fishers are united in opposing. As Jack Lunch wrote in Mammoth’s The Sheet:

 And why do fishermen of all stripes, from fly fishermen to bait fishermen, all seem to be on the same page? 

     “I’ve never been in a room where bait and fly people are in complete agreement on something,” remarked Slee Thursday morning. 

     Slee says year-round fishing will decimate fish populations by putting them under constant stress. 

I’ve compiled information from two of the organizations below, as well as provided a link for your comments. Trout Unlimited Jessica Strickland’s side-by-side comparison of California waters with current and proposed regs is available by email only. If you’d like a copy, let her know at jessica.strickland@tu.org.

If you are free tomorrow, from noon- 2 p.m.there’s an information session at Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

 

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Events

Calendar Item: Riptide Rendezvous registration opens

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Call to Action

Call to action: Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska
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Courtesy Earthjustice.org

From Trout Unlimited:

Despite over a decade of opposition, the agency reviewing the permit application for the massive proposed Pebble mine in Bristol Bay, Alaska recently moved the mega-project one step closer to reality.

The rivers and streams of Bristol Bay are known by anglers around the globe as some of the greatest, and among the last exceptionally productive wild salmon streams remaining on earth. The massive mine proposal slated for the heart of the spawning grounds of the Nushagak and Kvichak Rivers has been widely opposed for the past 15 years by local Alaska Native Tribes, Alaskans, commercial and sport fishermen, and concerned citizens worldwide. For anglers, the mine is a clear and direct threat to the thriving and irreplaceable salmon-based economy of the region.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) released by the Army Corps of Engineers is the most important document of the permitting process. Unfortunately, the highly anticipated DEIS just released is extremely short and fails to account for all the mine’s potential impacts, leaving Bristol Bay in immediate jeopardy.  Please comment on this today.

The process and flawed assessment leaves Alaskans filled with skepticism in the wake of recent environmental disasters associated with largescale tailings pond failures and as the DEIS findings include permanent destruction of more than 80 miles of streams and 3,500 acres of wetlands. What’s more, the current permit application considers only Pebble’s phase one plan. Risks posed by the entire project have yet to be fully evaluated, though the mine is closer than ever to reality.

Now is the time for anglers to weigh in: The public comment period runs from March 1st – May 30

Decision makers in D.C. are watching. They need to see that opposition to the Pebble mine is strong and growing. Please join us in the fight to preserve world-class fishing opportunity, cultural tradition, American jobs, food, and save Bristol Bay.

Learn more about the contents of the DEIS, the latest news, and how you can support the fight to stop the proposed Pebble mine at SaveBristolBay.org/StopPebble2019.

We strongly urge you, and your fishing buddies, to review the impacts of the Pebble mine and submit a comment of your own. Opposition to the Pebble mine is strong and growing – please join us in the fight to preserve cultural tradition, existing American jobs, food, and save Bristol Bay.

It’s no time for complacency when it comes to Pebble Mine. Please tell the agency reviewing Pebble’s most important permit to follow the science and stop the mine. Please take action today.

Los Angeles River

Sunnynook stumps …

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From Trout Unlimited’s Bob Blankenship:

“They’re in the process of increasing the flood capacity of the river near Griffith Park and removed a bunch of boulders and some trees too. Also they hacked out a bunch of arundo but that’ll be back soon enough … .”

News

So Cal’s Painted Ladies
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Scientists estimate about 1 billion painted lady butterflies are currently flying north from the Mexican desert to reach breeding grounds in Oregon. (Courtesy Yale University)

The beginning of the week, I was stuck trying to make a morning left turn when I saw lots of smudges floating in the distance. Fire? I thought, while the light turned red once again. As I waited for my next chance to turn, the smudges turned into — butterflies, dozens and dozens flew past my windshield, being pushed skyward by the oncoming traffic. It was an amazing sight and I’m sure you’ve shared a similar one if you live here.

You can read more about this year’s incredible numbers here.

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Fishing, News

Local fly fisher honored by United Women on the Fly
Analiza
HOW STOKED do you get when you waited three years for that first carp? About this stoked! (courtesy @fishshootbrew)

Local fly fisher and buddy Analiza Del Rosario just landed (haha) the United Women on the Fly featured fly girl.

According to the article, “She lives by her motto, “no bitching, just fishing!”

Congratulations, Analiza, you make our local fly-fishing community proud.

See you on the river, Jim Burns