Geo. Bergeron wrote: > > Dave Kruger and his charming, witty, and gracious SO invited me for a > Sunday paddle to celebrate my 50th. birthday. [snip; George, you omitted "beautiful"] > We headed north from the Knappa Dock across the glass smooth water.[snip] > Rounding the first island (We won't be specific. It's a secret!) ... [major snip] > This trip is one of the first I've done in warm, sunny weather. > It's nice to be able to put on the wet-suit without getting wet from the > rain in the process. It was a good day for a 50th birthday. Thanks Dave! > Thanks Becky! I had a swell time! Well, George, you are welcome. Every time you turn 50, we'll do that trip. Your posting has triggered something I was hesitating on. I bet everybody who subscribes to this list has a "secret spot" like the one we took George to. And, I bet each of us is VERY ambivalent about "sharing" it with the multitudes. The text after the signature (below) appeared in a late-night haze (beer *was* involved) several hours after the trip George described . George did not know it, but there is a potential "sea kayak expressway" planned for "my" secret spot. Note: it's not really my spot, of course. It truly belongs to no one or to everyone, or maybe to the critters. Here's my blast of angst. I'll hide under my flame shield for a few days and resurface when the air temps recede to tolerable. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR "What a Critter Needs" [No copyright, no ownership, just angst ...] In Oregon we are in the throes of sorting out which of our various salmon stocks and steelhead runs should be classified as "threatened," and which should be labeled "endangered." This, in a region which *in the memory of 70-year-old folks,* had more salmon migrating up the Columbia River than humans could catch with traps, wheels, gill nets, set nets, spears, and hooks. In my time here (just 25 years) I have seen the salmon runs on the Columbia River go from monstrous to minuscule. None of this can be attributed to overfishing. As Clinton might have said, "It's the habitat, stupid!" In the midst of this salmon disaster, it has been suggested that the local economy switch to "ecotourism," which translates, in part, into "paddle a sea kayak down a slough and look at the birds and the seals." In fact, a Portland-based history buff has proposed (and even put up little purple direction arrows on pilings for) a "Water Trail" commemorating the voyage of discovery -- Lewis and Clark's excursion to the sea. The proposed Water Trail passes through the guts of two adjacent National Wildlife Refuges, one nominally devoted to the (endangered) Columbia White-tailed Deer, and the other to waterfowl, more or less. Now, I've spent an afternoon a week for maybe 4-5 years, paddling ALL OVER the habitat the Water Trail will traverse. Man, I know this place. I know where the animals feel comfy and where they flee. And, frankly, even without a Water Trail, there are damn few places where waterfowl and seals can avoid human exposure. One of my favorite, most unreachable ones will be right in the middle of the "freeway" this Water Trail will generate, passing through waters the powerboat crowd can not touch (too shallow). [This is "Dave's secret spot," per George's post.] So, here's my question to the assembled wisdom of the Paddlewise throng: How should such a wildlife region be managed? All of this water is "navigable," and can not legally be "fenced off" for the protection of wildlife. Virtually all of the people who will use the proposed Water Trail will be good, conscientious folks who would sooner commit hari-kari than crush a baby duck. Yet, 80 per cent of them will, in their ignorance, blithely paddle down sloughs, completely unaware that their presence is scarifying the very animals they would protect with their donations and letters, if sensitively publicized on TV. Enough of them, as an aggregate, will "crush baby ducks" by making those sloughs and backwaters untenable for nurturing small waterfowl, not to speak of the effects of disturbance on over-wintering birds. We've know for a long time that the enemy is us, especially more of us. I just need some help sorting out how to handle all of this. What's a body to do? Hayduke's methods seem inappropriate here! Thanks for your help. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Wed Apr 22 1998 - 02:48:42 PDT
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