Thanks to everybody who’s been commenting and following along with our public relations campaign to reduce or remove hatchery trout from the McKenzie River. But ODFW decisions are made based on data, and the agency this summer conducted an angler preference survey to see if people would rather catch wild or hatchery trout.
The majority of this sampling was taken on the hatchery-planted section of the river — as Scott Kinney put it, it was like asking people at McDonald’s if they like Big Macs. But ODFW is interested in hearing your input, even if you didn’t float the hatchery zone this summer. ODFW has offered to take preference surveys till Mid-November from wild trout supporters.
Download the ODFW survey form, print it and fill it out, and turn it in. According to ODFW’s Jeff Ziller, there are several questions that pertain to the angling day and even though you will not likely be on the river, he suggests filling them out as though you were.
Please fill out the forms and mail these to Jeff Ziller Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 3150 Main St., Springfield, OR 97478.
For more on reducing or removing hatchery trout from the McKenzie River, check out our action checklist.
-MS
They surveyed me twice this summer, both times when I was fishing in the non-stocked zone above Blue River. You can probably guess how I answered most of the questions. And as an aside, the young lady doing the survey told me that most of people she had talked with in that area had given answers similar to mine. But then maybe that’s what you would expect from anyone who takes the trouble to drive up that far to get out of the hatchery zone.
Be sure to use this opportunity to give some direct feedback to ODFW on questions that are important to all of us. Hopefully the results will show that the river’s anglers are more enlightened than they may be given credit for.
Great work guys… a lot of folks had no idea what was going on. The information that TU 678 and Caddisfly has put out has been great. I can not thank you guys enough for stepping up. Never let it be said again that the younger folks refuse to engage, that no one cares – so why bother…. I don’t know if it means a damn thing, but I’m very proud to know you guys. It would have been easy to ignore such a hot topic, but you guys chose to champion this and we may yet save a redside for the future generations to come on the McKenzie River.
It just seems to come right back to the same thing though, doesn’t it? They know (odfw) that this wonderful and distinct trout is in trouble, yet they want a creel survey…. Why is that if it’s not about the dollars, always the dollars…That’s just sad.
Anyway, thanks guys….
Quick question. Is this blog or cause also on Facebook? If not can we get it started especially with the number of people on facebook wouldn’t it seem a very good alternative form of communicating our stance to a large number of people?
Hey Dave, ask and ye shall receive: http://apps.facebook.com/causes/387154/35573117
The new McKenzie Redsides facebook cause.
Just sent in my ODFW survey. Thanks for posting this.