How The Natural World Vanishes...

[Gary Lange]

Here are some interesting articles on the White River!

http://whiterivertroutdiva.net/2010/03/white-river-history-lesson/

http://www.projecttaney.org/50083/owen.html

[ozark trout fisher]

As someone previously posted in another thread, all outdoorsman should be tree huggers to a great extent.

I'm with you.

I have actually had a person,trying to insult me, call me an "crazy environmentalist". Not a very good insult seeing as how I took it as a compliment.

I don't have that much to add, since I've only been here for about six years now-not enough for me to notice any big changes, except for black bass species composition in the lower Meramec system.

But I have a lot of family that have spent their life in the Ozarks. My Grandfather would always talk about the pools on the the forks of the Black River that used to be all but bottomless, and after years of gravel mining, atv riding, and such, got shallower and wider and poorer fish habitat-and that was before the dam broke at the headwaters of the East Fork in Johnson shut-ins, one of his favorite smallmouth wading streams in years gone by. He has told me stories about catching lots of good sized smallmouth bass (and some honest to goodness trophy fish) from the lower Meramec below Eureka. That is mostly a thing of the past. He has spoken to me about the great walleye fishing on the St. Francis, Eleven Point, Meramec, Gasconade and Current. Once again, that is mostly a thing of the past. He told me about tracts of land that used to have many coveys of quail being pretty much barren. I know that old timers have been known to exaggerate, but each and every old timer fisherman I've known will tell you emphatically that the fishing has gotten pretty much progressively worse throughout their lifetime. That can't be just a coincidence.

As fisherman, we have to stand up to any threat against our fisheries. Dams, gravel mining,pollutants, greedy bureaucrats, industry, overharvest, anything that can make things keep getting worse. When I'm elderly, I do not want to be telling my grand-kids how great the fishing used to be. If I'm a "crazy environmentalist" it's because I desperately want to avoid a very bad reality-one where nature and natural resources are greatly diminished even from their already gravely threatened state. That's not the world I want to live in, and it's not the world I want future generations to live in.

Rant over.

[Chief Grey Bear]

Here are some interesting articles on the White River!

http://whiterivertroutdiva.net/2010/03/white-river-history-lesson/

http://www.projecttaney.org/50083/owen.html

I really enjoyed these and thanks for posting.

In the first one though I have a little problem with this quote:

"What’s even more cool, is the fact that it really hasn’t changed all that much… in many ways the Ozarks is just like it was those 60 years ago, more or less frozen in time. And I hope we can keep it that way, too. "

Some of the biggest changes in the White River happened in this time. And what is funny is the story that he posted spoke of these changes.

[Al Agnew]

I'm with you.

I have actually had a person,trying to insult me, call me an "crazy environmentalist". Not a very good insult seeing as how I took it as a compliment.

I don't have that much to add, since I've only been here for about six years now-not enough for me to notice any big changes, except for black bass species composition in the lower Meramec system.

But I have a lot of family that have spent their life in the Ozarks. My Grandfather would always talk about the pools on the the forks of the Black River that used to be all but bottomless, and after years of gravel mining, atv riding, and such, got shallower and wider and poorer fish habitat-and that was before the dam broke at the headwaters of the East Fork in Johnson shut-ins, one of his favorite smallmouth wading streams in years gone by. He has told me stories about catching lots of good sized smallmouth bass (and some honest to goodness trophy fish) from the lower Meramec below Eureka. That is mostly a thing of the past. He has spoken to me about the great walleye fishing on the St. Francis, Eleven Point, Meramec, Gasconade and Current. Once again, that is mostly a thing of the past. He told me about tracts of land that used to have many coveys of quail being pretty much barren. I know that old timers have been known to exaggerate, but each and every old timer fisherman I've known will tell you emphatically that the fishing has gotten pretty much progressively worse throughout their lifetime. That can't be just a coincidence.

As fisherman, we have to stand up to any threat against our fisheries. Dams, gravel mining,pollutants, greedy bureaucrats, industry, overharvest, anything that can make things keep getting worse. When I'm elderly, I do not want to be telling my grand-kids how great the fishing used to be. If I'm a "crazy environmentalist" it's because I desperately want to avoid a very bad reality-one where nature and natural resources are greatly diminished even from their already gravely threatened state. That's not the world I want to live in, and it's not the world I want future generations to live in.

Rant over.

What makes it tough is that it's the death of a thousand cuts. With a few exceptions, no one thing can be pointed out as being the culprit in the decline of the rivers and their fishing. One thing about the battles over the big dams, no matter how difficult it was to defeat the powers that be who wanted the dams, they were big, simple targets. But how do you protect the rivers from rampant development and poor land use in parts of the watershed that might be many miles from the river? How do you protect them from incremental damage like one more chicken farm per year? How do you protect them from being "loved" to death--more and more people with less and less real appreciation for the rivers and their setting, people who just look upon them as a place to get drunk or drugged up, or a racetrack for high speed boats, or a watering hole for group horseback rides? How do you change the mindset of those who only look at the river as a financial vehicle, or the mindset of those who believe that if you own property on the river you oughta be able to do as you darned well please with it no matter what?

How do you protect the river from all the invasive species that are changing it in ways we can't even predict? Silver carp, zebra and quagga mussels, spotted bass, diddymo...and who knows what the next invasive will be when it's so easy to transport stuff from all over the world. There are now snakehead fish in lower Black River...my brother's friend who fishes it for walleye has caught two of them this fall.

As time passes I get more and more pessimistic about the Ozark rivers. Like I said, it's no one thing, it's the accumulation of so many things, most of them difficult or impossible to fix, and some of them a direct result of a seemingly unchanging mindset of a large subset of the people who live here. It's gotten to where another great day on the river is almost a bittersweet experience because I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and something to happen to screw up that section of that river.

Aw, heck, I should be happy tonight...got on the river today and caught fish in a setting of perfect solitude, with eagles, deer, and a cute little screech owl soaking up the sun perched in a big hole in a snag right over the water.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I just read the second link you had Gary. Another great read. One small correction though.

"The late Dan Saults and Townsend Godsey, who passed away last year, were writers who knew Jim Owen, and they left much information and insight concerning his float fishing business. They gave much of the credit for his success to his boat builder, Charlie Barnes, and guides Albert Cornett, Raymond Winch, Little Horse Jennings, Tom Yocum, and Deacon Hembree."

It is Little Hoss Jennings.

[Gary Lange]

The were interesting Chief and I concur with you on that quote. I guess he missed the building of the dams along the White River. I think every successful business man has the people he hires to thank for his success. I bet somewhere out there someone has letters, pictures and other facts setting in a box waiting to be discovered. We can not turn back time but can only look at what we have now and try to improve it for the future. I just read a story on my Illinois Smallmouth Alliance forum from my friend Eric who was out wade fishing on the Fox River using a Float N Fly and hooked into a 19-15/16" Smallmouth. The ISA has done a lot to make Smallmouth Fishing great in Illinois.

[Chief Grey Bear]

I forgot to add snakes to my list. When I was a kid, there were at lest a dozen or more, it seemed, on every log jam you came to. They were on every log, rock, stick, or anything they could find to sun themselves on. Now days, I can count on both hands how many I see in a year. And this includes lakes. Now I don't spend the time on lakes I used too but, dad agreed, he doesn't see hardly any. I can remember as a kid, I always carried my BB gun in the boat and also when floating. I have no idea the number of snakes I shot. I sure as hell won't do it now and I won't let Dylan either.

Boy, how times have changed.

[Gary Lange]

When I waqs a kid in Illinois all I ever saw hardly was Garder Snakes and once a Black Snake. However, the last five years before I rtired and moved we were getting a lot of Northern Water Snakes in the river I waded. Now down here I see a few snakes but not many but then I am on the big lake most well I should say all the time. You do need to watch which rock you lift up to put your rope under though cause it may have a Copperhead under it. Voice of experience speaking. One of these day I am getting a Canoe so I may see more after that.

[Justin Spencer]

I forgot to add snakes to my list. I can count on both hands how many I see in a year.

Talking to our floaters we don't seem to have a shortage on the NFoW. Love the less devoloped areas of the state. I have seen probably a dozen different species of snakes here including some really cool ones like a speckled kingsnake and coachwhip.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I forgot to add snakes to my list. When I was a kid, there were at lest a dozen or more, it seemed, on every log jam you came to. They were on every log, rock, stick, or anything they could find to sun themselves on. Now days, I can count on both hands how many I see in a year. And this includes lakes. Now I don't spend the time on lakes I used too but, dad agreed, he doesn't see hardly any. I can remember as a kid, I always carried my BB gun in the boat and also when floating. I have no idea the number of snakes I shot. I sure as hell won't do it now and I won't let Dylan either.

Boy, how times have changed.

When you was a kid you could SEE them better. I think they're still at all those usual places, its just as we get older we can't pick 'em out like we used to.