One of my favorite blogs is ‘The Trout Underground’ – and I’m a big fan of the owner, Tom Chandler. I came across an article there by Tom regarding the controversy over suction dredge mining in California and the salmon population.  You can see the article here. I just thought I’d opine on this topic…

I consider myself a conservationist; and I’m an avid Fly fisher. In my youth, (before the Fly-fishing bug struck me) my most favorite hobby was Placer Mining/Dredging. I did it for about 8 years, all over Northern California. It was a lot of very hard work. I never made much money at it; but that wasn’t the goal. It was a labor of hope. It was also the most fascinating education in trout behavior that I ever had. As someone with FIRST-HAND experience under the water with the nozzle in my hand, I can tell you that trout LOVED it. In fact, after a long day of unproductive dredging, I can remember taking off my wet suit and joking about a great day of ‘Feeding the Fish’. Let me explain…

 Once while dredging my way down to bedrock I had created about an eight foot deep hole. I was practically standing on my head, since I hadn’t taken the time to remove a larger area of material (rocks and sand) because I was in such a hurry to reach bedrock. I emerged from my hole to rest for a while and got quite a shock. There must have been 400 trout swimming around me! I had stirred up so much food for the fish that they were gorging themselves on hellgrammites and various larvas. I’d created my own hatch!

 No, I’m not a scientist; but neither are most of the people involved in this issue! Here is what I can tell you from personal experience. (We should be listening to people with experience, don’t you think?)

 While dredging, there are primarily three things that affect the fish in a positive way:

1. You are creating deep holes that trout will use as soon as you’ve gone, to keep them cool when water temperatures rise.
2. You are putting a lot of food into the water column.
3. The rocks that fall off the sluice box and back into the water (called tailing piles) are free of silt and provide great habitat for juvenile fish to escape predators.

 Furthermore, dredgers are not putting anything in the water that wasn’t there already. Yes, I’m referring to the law-abiding dredgers, the ones that don’t spill gasoline. In my opinion, there’s a hell of a lot more poachers and polluters than clumsy dredgers. As far as dirt goes – a good rain will dirty-up a river much more than dredging ever does.

 I know this issue at hand is about salmon and not trout. Obviously allowing dredging when eggs are present is not good for salmon (or any other fish species that you want to thrive). But that’s why there are laws, people! Yes – there are specific seasons for dredging. My opinion is:

• If those seasons need to be adjusted – do it!
• If certain critical habitat should be off limits – so be it.

 Our Salmon are more important that our hobbies.

 I’m just sick and tired of the assumption that many people make that ‘everything that humans do is evil and detrimental to the environment!’

 I realize I don’t have a PhD; but can we wait to pass judgment until more data exists? And when that data emerges, I hope it will be tempered with common-sense input from people representing ALL interests. How many times has the ‘popular science of the day’ proved to be a load of crap years down the road? Sadly our scientific community is full of corruption because of the way grant money is doled out. It has turned many scientists into whores – getting into whatever position you pay them to…

 

-John Carver