Would You Support This Legislation?

[Justin Spencer]

I can only imagine what Teddy Roosevelt and other founding fathers would have thought about trashing our parks, resources and waterways... I realize he would have wanted to fish and hunt them to death, but what would he have done if he would have encountered a typical summer weekend on many of our rivers or lakes today?

The population of the US when Teddy left office was 90.5 million, the current population of the United States is 311.6 million, 3.5 times the number of people. Our infrastructure and transportation improvements now allow all classes of people to use our resources which once were only able to be utilized by the wealthy. Things that most consider progress have led to our current situation, and unless we can curb the population growth of the nation things will only get worse. Unfortunately Capitalism doesn't work very well without growth.

[Feathers and Fins]

I can only imagine what Teddy Roosevelt and other founding fathers would have thought about trashing our parks, resources and waterways... I realize he would have wanted to fish and hunt them to death, but what would he have done if he would have encountered a typical summer weekend on many of our rivers or lakes today?

You do understand Teddy was not a founding father dont you?

Teddy along with other great men did understand the need for conservation and wild places as do many of sportsmen today but I fear the number is dwindling and not increasing. Joining conservation groups today seem to be a fad and not from the heart it is more like how many stickers can i put on my truck or trailer than doing conservation work. Thats ok the money helps but those donating to it DO NOT have the first clue about conservation its just the "IN" thing.

The thing here and I have gave this a lot of thought is you can say you will tax people or you will require an additional fee but there MUST be someone to enforce it. I seriously doubt if 2 to 3 months of this tax /fee a year will put enough money in the states coffers to warrant additional officers and support staff to enforce this. That is the one thing people forget about is the Support staff for the officers you are not just hiring a officer you are hiring the paper pushers the desk the office the truck and boat etc. Then you need to get Judges who care about wildlife laws and we know where that has gone in the past.

[Justin Spencer]

You do understand Teddy was not a founding father dont you?

I missed that one, very funny!

[Midwest troutbum]

I am well aware that T.R. was not a founding father, but he took credit for founding our national park system.... So to me, he was essentially the founding father for conservation in this country. I'm glad you all picked up on that.

[Midwest troutbum]

There are many western U.S. States that are deeply rooted in Capitalism, and yet they still have the smarts to protect their water resources by whatever means necessary, even if if goes against capitalistic values. I think the state agencies are trying here in MO, but just don't have as strong public's cooperation. Typical citizen would just rather watch and move on than report anything.

Its a shame is all I'm saying. Someday the resource will all likely be gone. Only in times of crisis people here react and ask for something to be done, but I'm not so sure that will even hold true 10 years from now.

[Feathers and Fins]

You bring up the West and The National Parks, There is a reason the two are tied togeather John Muir was the one who made them possible through his influance on some very powerful men one of which was Teddy Roosevelt. Teddy got the credit as president but it was Muir who was the true founder of the parks system. Teddy did take it a step further and created the National Wildlife Refuge's the first at Pelican Island Florida. Its funny the Parks service fell under the Dept of Int, Muir actually wanted it to be under ARMY control as he felt the deptint was corrupt.

But you bring up a possible solution to this topic, Create more NWR's and NP's which would allow for their permanent protection.

If you havent or for that matter all who love conservation should read the writing of Muir.

[Feathers and Fins]

I wonder what it would take to start getting these rivers in to the NWR system, Make them like many other refuges that people must pay to use them or buy the Federal Duck stamp to use them as a yearly pass. Besides a good retriever there is no better and proven tool than the Federal Duck Stamp for conservation

[zander]

It is not the duck stamp that is the tool for conservation. The duck stamp provides for all of the things that you need- land, equipment, enforcement, research. Imagine what a "Ozark river stamp" could do. Riparian area purchase for protection in a targeted manner, dedicated enforcement, clean up. One thing that might be nice is a beer can census. Each canoe must declare how many cans of beer they have when they start. When they finish they need to have the same number of unopened cans or emptied with them. Any difference is a per can fine. Make it mandatory for outfitters to have their guests fill it out and complete it. Make the fine for falsifying it really hefty. Have officers check mid float and at take outs.

I like the Ozark rivers stamp idea. They could buy a daily stamp or a yearly. Stamp must be seen or purchased through an outfitter if for a rental company. Individual users of these streams could purchase at walmart or wherever

I bet a lot more people would get behind this if for no other reason then it does not use the word tax or fee

[Feathers and Fins]

Good idea but seriously how many will be honest about the beer? Not many i would guess and who would be checking every boat and issuing the citations? That is an ungodly amount of work. Under the NWR type system the booze would not be allowed to begin with. I never found i needed the spirits to have a good time in fact i found i had better times and remembered more of them without the spirits.

The other thing being a NWR would do is put a staff on the areas including a warden, problem will be land aquistition. It doesnt need ot be NWR but something similar would be nice.

[zander]

Yeah you couldn't check everyone. You just need to make random checks and nail people $$$ for lying about what they have. The same goes for customs declarations and other things where you have to check a few and not all