weber river

[Xman]

well this is a plea for help for the people on this site. it has come to my attention that there is a severe problem on the weber river. in fact i have known about this for quite some time and for whatever reasons i have decided to finally do something about it.

let me lay some background. the browns in the weber river have been spawning up on the banks for years now because of low water levels in the weber. the weber basin conservancy controls the water levels. for some reason the water flows very high during the spawn so the browns go to the most suitable areas. that is on the runs on the banks and side channels. well right before or during the spawn they drop the flows to near nothing leaving only lost creek and east canyon to feed the entire weber. i spoke to the dwr today and they told me they are aware of this and have tried for a long time now to work with them. to try to manage the water flows during certain times of year. if they let the water just run for a week or so longer the eggs will survive. or visa versa leave the water low with flows let the browns spawn accordingly, they will survive.

as a result now the beds and i counted over a hundred in a 1/4 stretch, are now left dry. everyone knows what that means. i was told the only way to do anything about this is from public interest and special interest groups filing complaints and legislative action. if this makes you mad like me please reply and offer some type of help. even if you dont fish this river as a fisherman it should concern you. i want to contact trouts unlimited if anyone knows the contact info for the chapter in ogden that would be appreciated. they spent severalo million on a restoration in riverdale that is now almost useless because of the water flows as well.

i ask again please for everyone to do something about this. if the provo river experienced the same things it would be a major topic. for some reason the weber is not taken seriously and as a result all the fish are suffering. im not saying stop the water flows but to simply manage it accordingly cant be that hard. its a matter of all the water owned privately and they simply dont care about the fishery rather the water and the funds that come from the sales of the water.

i hope you find this as disconcerting as i do and look forward to getting people together to actually make this ridiculous situation better.
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[PREDATOR]

I think what we would need to know is who is the individual responsible on the DWR side. And who is the individual responsible on the water control side. Then we could e-mail our concerns to them. I would recomend attending a R.A.C. meeting and getting that topic put on the agenda. They will then have a biologist and all the top people there to give out all the information related to this situation. You want something done, the RAC can really help. I have seen it work before.

[Xman]

i have already made several contacts that i believe will be in the right direction. the RAC was another thought i had. i feel that a group needs to be represented here though to actually make a difference. so im looking for those taht voice there opinions in this manner to the RACs and other meetings pertaining to our environment. thanks for the advice and i hope other people see the seriousness of this situation as well.
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[boatless]

Let's make a stand, and make it our forum for our ice fishing/dutch oven event!
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[Hellsangler69]

I agree something need to be done , but it seems everytime I fish the Weber more "No Tresspassing " signs appear and water I can fish is shrinking up .
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[BearLakeMack]

[font "Comic Sans MS"][size 3]Be glad the Weber is not treated like the lower Blacksmith Fork River. Every year it is run dry by the end of July because the agricultural needs are considered more important than the environmental and habitat concerns. [/size][/font]
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[road]

Hey guys Xman is right, we need to do something and emails alone wont do it. As a retired govt empolyee, emails have a way of just getting saved and not read. And we should take action, it is our heritage that is in jepordy.

I say send your congressman and senetor a paper letter. Hard copies get read because they have to be filed and are not easily obtained once filed. As far as who is responsible I bet theres enough blame to go around. But the people who control the flow has a resonsibility to maintain the health of our eco system. It can't be that hard to find out who they are. I will call DWR in the morning and ask. I'll post where to send your letters. This really is important the places we can fish is getting smaller and smaller. I slipped away today to get some stream time on the Beaver Creek. This is where I learned to trout fish, there was not more than a 1/4 mile stretch that I could fish. The rest is either posted or non fishable. I really don't mind the postings, its the owners right. And I have found that just asking those same owners will get you fishing more often than not. The rest was just not fishable, fences across the water, stone patchs w/hand railes. The Creek has changed a bit. The Weber is a public access river and it must be maintained as one. I have a creek by the house that the kids tube in the summer. When i cant get away I can walk over there and always catch something. But they cut the flow to it and now it is dry again. Happens more often that you might think.

So lets all get behind the Weber issue. Lets find innovative ways to shake this tree. Maybe we can get the Media interested. Heck of a story for Doug Miller Outdoors. Just a thought. X if there is something you need help with email me. I'll do what ever I can.
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[Xman]

Hello Road,



thanks for the support and i appreciate the info. to save you a bit of information gathering i did call the dwr and the trouts unlimited representative for the utah coalition for anglers. they gave me a very good scoop on the situation at hand. if you would like to call for yourself than that is great i found it to be a very educational but shocking discussion. finding out all the things that are going on and didnt really even know. this is my fault for being a "closet" fisherman and not being real active in the pursuit of our heritagal rights to fish. as for the blacks fork Mack that is unfortunate as well. and something needs to be done about these spells of drying up rivers. i dont see it necessary to do such a thing when your dealing with a bio mass of millions. it is terrible for the ecology. not just for my hobbies sake or others but rather the environmental issues and repurcussions that may insue from the results. i believe its just not managed properly, clearly because of the results, and the priority scale is in certain areas and some of these dont seem to consider the environment.

i will definitely be emailing you road to pursue this issue and im looking for all the help i can get. it appears you can be a excellent resource for this
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[davetclown]

[cool] I am glad you guys are taking up issues on the environment.

[crazy] It is a fact that if state's number one industry (hunters and anglers) do not get into a huff about the qualities of their territories, the states and local governments will over look commercial dumping on to lands and waterways.

[] I believe that we need to provide a way to be able hold local state and federal administrators criminally accountable for their oversights and failures to protect the environments natural resources, by this I mean by failing to pass strict laws, mandate contamination containments by all factories using cutting oils or have any industrial waist period (no industrial complex should be allowed to have access to any city drainage and must contain all of its disposals for proper treatment) and pursuing maximum penalties for corps who violate and pass the full cost of the clean up on the corps for the clean ups of their transgressions.

[shocked] It may be time for a third political (one that has real issues about the economy and environment) not one that pretends to have issues and then you never hear about them.

[crazy] This political party needs to be one that fully represents the hunting and fishing naturalist. We are just decades from total and complete failure of many natural arias around the world, do to misrepresentations and failure to see that the environment is our home and provides us with our daily bread.

[] For some lame reason politicians have come to the conclusion that toxic waist is the price for economic growth. That my friend is just no so, this is called cutting corners, (misappropriations of monies companies say that is their cost to maintain and correctly dispose of toxic waist, but end up in political pockets and in the multimillion dollar mansions of the corporation owners. This happens all the way down to small factories just down the road from your house. I know this because I worked in small factories and have seen the illegal dumping in to flood drains in the floors of the factory. I have seen them pump their cutting oils on to the neighbor’s fields.

[pirate] You can bet though if you say some thing to the company you work for, your position will be in jeopardy at a future time at best, or worse, burry you with the toxic waist if they cant shut you up and you could do legal damage to them for their operations ethics.

[mad] Many times when those who do escape their clutches are revered as being non-conformist and having poor work ethics and attitudes and are blacked listed through the privet network of manufacture owners. And your record at the employment office that keeps track of your work history will have this attitude problem on your permanent work record. (I have seen mine and know this to be true)

[angelic] I am not saying all corporations are like this; it totally depends on the individuals who are running the companies and how much they want to steal from the firm. There are a good number of corporations that maintain a high standard of work ethics, providing their employees with a clean and safe working atmosphere. Those corporations who view employees as a resource and not an asset (property to be owned) do, do well and stay competitive in the industry because of their employees’ personal drive to stay at their top efficiency levels. Knowing that they will be there to share in the benefits of their operations and gainfully fall with their failures should they not meet with today’s competition of economics?

[unsure] You can bet your last fishing hook that if you go to the home of any of the politicians today you wont see garbage piled up on their front door steps you wont find oil spills in their Olympic size swimming pools. There for you should not find this trash in your fishing hole.

[crazy] These are the issues of today, not “do we kill our own unborn children” we have terrorist for that

[mad] Here is a good one for those who are paying attention. Two days ago our federal senate has passed a full medical and retirement package for them selves, providing for their “well-being” and automatic cost of living increases in their “annual retirement computation” on the backs of the taxpayers, but have yet to provide senior citizens with a comparable compensation in medical or social security benefits, (this years senior citizen can expect a $13.50 dollar a month cost of living increase, what a joke, again senior citizen loose money, the cost of living went up more than $13.50 per month. I know this for a fact because I live on a fixed income and count every dollar down to the penny. [center][] Yes if I see a penny I stop to pick it up no matter how much it hurts my back, I know the value of the penny. [][/center]



[]So guys keep up the good work, we need more folks like you working in the field protecting and preserving our resources. [center][cool] You’re doing a great job [cool][/center] [center][cool] Thanks [cool][/center] [center][cool][/center]
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[tightline]

Xman,

I am with you. I can't beleive the amount of abuse this watershed has received. I have seen the trout #'s get smaller and smaller and the trash and silt grow deeper and deeper. I love this river it flows almost in my back yard. I can still remember the first time I saw the river drop this summer and thougth this will be a nice time to go get a look at all the big browns while they are stacked up in the big holes because everything esle was a trickle. To my shock I found hundreds and hundreds of dead trout and white fish at every bend. I bet I saw 1000 dead fish that day. I couldn't beleive that after all the time and money that was spent on that area by TU. Suddenly there was the worst fish kill I had ever seen. It is amazing this river rebounds as well as it does. Think what would happen if we could just keep water in it and furtilizer out!

tightline
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