The Caddis Fly: Oregon Fly Fishing Blog

From Cascadia Wildlands: The Oregon Department of State Lands (DSL) is accepting public comments through tomorrow (Jan. 12) on the application by the Port of Coos Bay for a slip dock at the Port to accommodate the proposed Jordan Cove Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminal. The amount of material proposed to be dredged out of the Coos Bay estuary would fill the Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena 14 times! It is expected that this imported gas would then be piped to other lines and ultimately to markets in California. In addition to major ecological damage that would occur from the pipeline, private property owners in the way of the proposed line would have their property rights greatly compromised.

Please take action now and join us in telling DSL to deny this application and protect Oregon from an unnecessary LNG terminal and pipeline. It takes ten seconds.

From the organization We Agree, No LNG: Fishermen and outdoor enthusiasts are concerned about the impacts to waterways the pipeline construction would bring. The Pacific Connector Pipeline would cross or affect 249 waterbodies. The freshwater streams crossed by the entire pipeline route include six major subbasins of rivers in southern Oregon: the Coos, Coquille, South Umpqua, Upper Rogue, upper Klamath and Lost River. Most of the major streams, and many of the minor streams crossed in these subbasins contain salmon and steelhead, some of which are federally listed as threatened fish species.

Last night in Salem, ODFW held an open house town hall meeting.

Based on last night’s meeting, I feel the agency is really headed in the right direction. ODFW Fish Division Director Ed Bowles and his staff made some statements that convinced me conservation of wild fish is the agency’s number one priority, while trying to balance that with the demand for more “opportunity” — hatcheries and harvest. The agency’s plan to tackle a six-species coastal river conservation plan for the Columbia to California is going to be one of the most ambitious and important conservation projects our state has ever tackled.

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