Group to collect signatures on gillnetting ban

Commercial outfits vow to fight the ballot initiative

It's expensive, labor intensive and divisive, but a ballot initiative to ban commercial gillnets and tangle nets on the Columbia River was the only option left, said the head of the conservation organization that filed the paperwork to start collecting signatures.\

"Definitely going with an initiative is a lot more costly," said Bryan Irwin, the president of Coastal Conservation Association, which has 9,000-plus members in Oregon and Washington.
"And it's not a route that you want to go, but the inability to do this through the legislature and through the (Oregon Fish and Wildlife) commission has left us with no other choice."
The Protect Our Salmon Act, as the initiative is called, would require that commercial netters switch......


http://www.statesmanjournal.com/article/20100101/OUTDOORS/1010328/1034/SPORTS