Scoped Out

STANDING ROOM ONLY

Plethora Of Staff

dyspepsia, eructation, egression.

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.. Of the nearly 100 people, (86, by count) in attendance at the Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks scoping meeting last night, we counted 19 staff members from various agencies in attendance.
.. From uniformed and non-uniformed law enforcement personnel to uniformed and non-uniformed researchers, administrators, and employees, it was an overwhelming show of force.
.. The meeting generally followed the form of such events: Introductions, Presentations, Interruptions, Questions, Chaotic Mumblings, Discourteous Inattention, etc. There were a few interesting disjunctions in the verbal brickbats that stood out:

1] "This process started about 1999 when a group of concerned citizens approached the DFWP with their concerns about recreational usage of the Madison River."

vs

   "We are very early in this process. This is the beginning of this action. We want your input"

2] "We have been thinking about this problem for nearly ten years now.

vs

"We have no preconceived ideas how to address this problem and we're going to address the larger picture of the whole river."

3] "We are lucky that we are ahead of the curve in this action and can address problems and areas of conflict before they happen."

vs

" The conflicts between user groups and the conflicts with land owners have brought about this action."

4] "We are just trying to understand what you are saying. You seem to be talking about things that we just don't understand."

vs

"The science is the same and it should be easy to understand."

.. We can only observe that it's interesting that after 10 years of surveys, research, and cogitation that;  "the beginning of the process starts now."
.. It's also enlightening to find out that no ideas were generated by MFWP staff about how to address the perceived problems during that ten years.
.. My, my, how sweet it is that we are ahead of the curve and that the conflicts that originated this process are not really conflicts.
.. It seems that this whole exercise is designed to implement regulations about manners and morals. "Social Fishing Regulations" is an interesting bit of terminology that reflects the concerns of some nebulous group of insiders.
.. For instance, it's acknowledged that, save for the Whitefish population, the other fish populations are not being affected by the kinds of actions of user groups being addressed. Even the Whitefish population concerns, cannot be linked to the social behavior of river users.
.. Please note that the MFWP has a mission that seems to guarantee all of us the perfect recreational experience - or so it would seem - LINK.

.. We are naive in these matters, and certainly need to become better informed, but for now we can't see how regulation of river use can reduce littering - unless there is a removal of all river users - seems to be a public education and law enforcement issue.
.. We applaud the mentality that believes regulation of numbers and types of users will remove the idiot tubers, boaters, and fishing guides that run over your fishing line in a gentle shore-side pool - we just don't believe that it will work.
.. We have a hard time believing that any newly promulgated regulations will enhance the recreational experience of vastly  different individual users - unless it favors some users to the detriments of others.
.. We're going to watch this groundbreaking effort in social engineering through fishing regulations. Of course the anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, and recreational specialists of this world are also waiting for this breakthrough regulatory plan.
.. Sadly, we had an attack of dyspepsia well into the meeting. Nausea accompanied our belching and farting and we had to leave just as the entertainment was reaching a crescendo. You'll have to read about the results of the meeting in the newspapers, or observations by bloggers who understand this stuff more than we do.
.. Here's the link to the MFWP page: LINK.

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