Mark K

As I understand it, technically it's illegal as it's a non navigable waterway and there are people that own both sides of the stream so, if you float it you are trespassing.. I floated the Mazon a lot in the 90's and early 2000s. The float was Oxbow Rd to Pine bluff. The only issue was comming back to a flat tire once. No puncture so it could have been kids. Then once I was wading at White Tie Falls and some old guy chewed me out, and really was not nice. So not to freak you out, but I met met some people at Oxbow bridge that were catching darters, putting them in an aquarium and photoing them. They reported a scary experience involving guns, but were still back. I talked to a local. Nice guy and he said that if I wanted to float the river with my kids I could park my vehicle on his property anytime I want. He said there is only one other "crab-ass" who objects. If it were me I would ring a doorbell and wave a $20 around. Fishing wise, a 14" fish would be big. Scale down and have fun.

What was ridiculous about them?

Rich you are a nice guy, but frankly if the previous administration had anything to do with it, I would not expect you to be in support of it. I would also question the sources of your opinions. Not saying those are wrong, but that would be reasonable. Question was how does the actual ISA leadership stand on this and why.

If this is an opinion shared by ISA leadership?

Nah. Wouldn't matter. They get their way paid by CEOs of mining companies. I better shut up or I'll get sued. :-)

Wow. I never knew the EPA was such a puny part of the budget. .2%. Could not believe it when I heard it. Yeah, POINT 2% as in TWO TENTHS of a percent! https://www.theatlas.com/charts/SJMHpDKbe Plans are to cut by 31 percent.

I get where Jim and Scott are going. Some...most of the other fishing forums are trashy and nasty. You guys are relative new commers. A long time ago this forum and the club in a way evolved out of a "calm heads prevail" attitude and in general guys being reasonably respectful to each other. i personally had to get off Facebook, because I began to really dislike people I thought previously were pretty cool. You don't want that happening. Most of the guys I run into that label themselves as "sportsman" (WTF does that mean anyway??) also have "conservative". leanings. I have seen these guys in person sweat their asses off, as in hard physical work for the local environment. That's no lie. I kind of doubt that they like the idea of pollution happening and public lands disappearing. On the other hand, almost every single issue on here, most significantly the efforts to defund and dismantle the EPA and that would not be happening had the recent elections gone the way they did. It's also going thru with a level of speed and impunity, that is pretty amazing. it's that simple, and if you are surprised about it, then, plain and simple you have not been following politics, because this situation is a wet dream for some those guys and their contributors and they were not quiet about it. When you look at this objectively, they are really doing what they said they were going to. I guess you can "raise awareness" on these issues, but on a certain level, you really shouldn't dance around why they are happening. It's 100% politics and money and right now, it's a done deal. You can vent about it, but really it's going do be difficult to impossible to stop anything now.

That image is from the EPA archives. Kind of surprised it's still there.

It's a moot point. Sooner than later, you aren't going to have any environmental laws to discuss. Back to the old days, not all that long ago.

Look on the bright side fellas! Nobody is going to come take your guns, now.

Very interesting site and certainly worth the time to read over. http://www.trcp.org/

This 'splains it pretty well. https://weather.com/science/environment/news/trump-executive-order-rollback-clean-water-rule

But not at all unexpected. Not one bit.

At this point, not a damn thing.

http://www.eenews.net/stories/1060050638

You have to admire the speed this is going thru. No arguments. Well done on the other side.

Not surprised one little bit, but pretty amazed that this is going down as fast as it is. Money talks.

Palos over the weekend.

On Sunday, 3 juveniles and 2 adults at the lake at Little Red Schoolhouse in Willow Springs, then another juvenile at Saganashkee Slough. Probably 10 miles from Chicago city limits.

Totally off topic, but this is kind of a cool story. Apparently Scalia and Ginsberg hung out after work. Apparently they were tight. http://www.npr.org/2016/02/15/466848775/scalia-ginsburg-opera-commemorates-sparring-supreme-court-friendship

No I was thinking Roberts. There were rumors flying around in the last month. I guess those have been put to rest. My bad.

Consider its done.

did you get a drone?

Well, i am doing something right. My 15 year old son, Max just got home from his speech club competition. I told him about this discussion and, he knew, everything about the "Stream Act", pretty much summarized the whole subject. :-)

I hate to be a party pooper. Not sure how much you guys follow politics, but things don't look so bright for us now. "They" control, the House, Senate, the executive and soon with the new appointee to SCOTUS, Roberts might feel comfy enough to retire...AND on a state level a large number of governors are of that ilk. Yeah. Not so good.