Originally Posted By: Bent Metal
Originally Posted By: smelt
Sport fishing, if prudently managed with either catch-and-release or very limited catch-and-keep regulations on wild fish (such as winter steelhead on the Olympic Peninsula), can be conducted by a large number of people every day with relatively limited impact on the resource. .


Agree! Ive walked/waded as much river as anyone and as far as user groups are concerned; fisherman and boaters make up the heavy majority of users which I have witnessed. I can count on one hand; how many suction dredgers or even gold panners I have run across.

Smelt, Out of all the user groups along our rivers and streams, who has the biggest direct impact on the resource? CNR carries a certain mortality rate? Boaters drag anchor, leak fuel, poachers, etc..?

I would guess that dredging, done correctly has less impact than sport fishing and limited kill fisheries, just for the simple fact that there are tens of thousands of angler hours spent streamside , vs dredgers limited time on water??


FYI - there is very little gold on the Olympia peninsula and prospecting is completely banned inside the park. There were a few working gold mines inside what is now the ONP but once the park was created the mines had to close. The NPS then systematically deleted all written record of any mining activity inside the park boundaries to keep people from looking.

"Dredging done correctly" is what I teach, advocate and practice. Smelt seems hung up on what lawless dredgers "CAN" do to a stream.
It would be like me saying that all fishermen need to be regulated and restricted because they " CAN" snag salmon with treble hooks.

Last, when you are considering all of the user groups that have an impact, don't forget the Tribes....they take half of everything off the top. I wish I had a dollar for ever time I saw a tribal member selling kings out of the trunk of his car.