I got my annual permit from Douglas Bar the other day and I had a talk with the land owner. He told me that they have been having problems with people partying in there late at night as well as during the day and leaving beer cans and other miscellaneous trash behind. Fred, the land owner, also mentioned that if this crap continues then he's closing it down to the public.

It's too bad that we are facing closures of popular private areas all across Washington because of a bunch of littering slobs! Not saying that any board members are to blame for the mess and there are several cleanup efforts going on like the proposed Wind River cleanup and the previous Kalama cleanups.

If any members frequent Douglas Bar, which many of you do, then please take a few minutes at the end of your fishing trip to drive around and pick up what you can.

FYI, there is also a locked gate now in place across the road by the dike so hopefully this should keep out the cheapskates who don't pay, which is probably where the majority of the *trash* is coming from.

Too bad we can't enforce rules like we do up at the Sauk River Steelhead Ranch. You litter up there, you float the river without a boat!!!

Pack it in, pack it out. Peace

You bring up some good points Kid, You need to tip your hat to Fred on what he has done over the years allowing people access to the river through his property. There is not many people like him left that will put up with this. Unfortunatly it only takes a few who don't respect other peoples property and the environment we live in. Alot of the crap left on the river bank is like you said the partiers also it comes from those hot days when you see every thing that possibly will float have some slob on it with a six pack or a cooler on a rope behind them. There is the humpy season comming which brings out every body fishing for those slimy creachers and all the garbage associated with that fishery. There is limited public bank access just up river from him that gets very packed. If every one would do their part and take care of their own trash plus a little more on the way back to there vehicles that would help matters plus it should make you feel better about your self. I'm sure most all who are associated with this forum do their part, it's the casual and seasonal fishers that we need to get the point across to. I believe this state needs to get tough on it's littering. Next time you go north of the border or on the island you see very little trash along the road sides or in the parks. Take some pride in where and how you live. "Keep Washinton Green"

Have to agree with you guys on this. Just walk the Pilchuck or wander around the Reiter (garbage dump) area and it will make you sick. Too many fishing people just dont care about this area.

Yeah, the trash is disgusting. I guess it's like our traffic problem which becomes increasingly worse with the population explosion that has been happening. I remember when I used to go up to Reiter and fish on the weekends with maybe 20 guys total on the whole hatchery side. I'm not talking about back in the 70's or anything. I'm talking about 15 years ago when I first started the great sport of steelheading. Sure there was litter, but with more and more people out there on the rivers today there's going to be a lot more garbage.

I have a couple of buddies who fish off of the bank religiously at Douglas Bar that have agreed to help police the "trash" as well as pick it up. I rarely fish off of the bank at Douglas but next time I do, I'll hang up my rod for a while and pick up some garbage. As a riverfront property owner, I know what it's like to have to deal with garbage.