Really Bad Messaging...
Maine NFC board member Larry Bastian and his wife and NFC Secretary/Treasurer Debby Bastian recently went for a walk at Anna Ruby Falls on Smith Creek in Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest while visiting their son in Georgia.
What the Bastian’s found on Smith Creek was disappointing to say the least. In addition to boardwalks, viewing platforms, and fish-feeders, there was a deliberately constructed manmade rock dam with a sign saying that it is good for fish, which it is not. In fact, the structure looks to be blocking fish-passage.
The organization/government-sponsored signage also shows that they are managing the stream for two nonnative species, rainbows and browns, and one native fish, brookies, with no differentiation. Apparently, a trout is a trout is a trout…
There is also a series of interpretive a Q&A signs, one of which basically amounts to an admission that they are stocking over wild fish and even native fish, and again without caveat…
As far as messaging goes, this is about as bad as I have seen. While the signage touts habitat work and catch and release, even though it appears to be closed to fishing, it also promotes nonnative fish and stocking over wild native fish. Obviously we still have a lot of work to do… -Bob Mallard
