PUBLISHER'S NOTEBOOK: The Blood Sports of Fishing and Farming

Days before the announcement was officially made, Andy Couch, owner of Fishtale River Guides and Frontiersman contributor sent me an e-mail with a heads-up about the brewing controversy surrounding Alaska Department of Fish and Game Commissioner Sam Cotten’s pending decision to close Northern Cook Inlet/Mat-Su Borough King salmon fisheries for the start of the 2018 season. Flash back to two years ago when members of the Mat-Su Borough Fish Commission met with me shortly after my tenure as Publisher of the Frontiersman began. The point of the meeting was for me to have an understanding of how important sport fishing for salmon is and the impact it has on the local economy. The one part of the conversation that stuck with me is that salmon fishing in Alaska can at times be “a blood sport.”

Fishing for Kings

That June, Couch was kind enough to take a group of us King salmon fishing on Deshka. The trip was part educational and it gave me an affinity for the sport. Just months earlier, I would have never imagined that I would be fishing for King salmon in Alaska. And after all five members of our party each caught their one fish limit and we were heading back to offload, I told Couch, “Andy, this is truly a trip of lifetime for me.”

Couch’s reply: “Dennis for me it’s just another day fishing.”

I wanted to trade jobs for the summer but Couch wouldn’t bite.

Fast forward

When it was announced that Commissioner Cotten and other State representatives were coming to meet with the Mat-Su Borough Fishery Board last Thursday, I anticipated that the “blood sport” part of fishing would rear its ugly head. I envisioned a packed room full of angry sport fishermen and a board that was going to let the State have it for their handling of the Kings’ 2018 migration. But the room only had a handful of people and what ensued was a cordial and for me a very educational discussion of the management process. Board member Howard Delo read off a series of questions in which the commissioner and team answered one by one. At first, I thought this was going to be an exercise in futility because the first thing Cotten did was apologize for not receiving the questions until just hours before the meeting, even though they were emailed the Friday prior. I thought he was stonewalling but as each question was asked each question was answered thoughtfully. Dialogue progressed between the two sides and not once did either give into in impatience.

Comparing Blood Sports

As I sat and listened to the discussion about the salmon migration and the many stages and how the salmon start with a large number at the beginning of the migration and navigate their way through many aspects of fishing to reach their destination. From commercial fishery, sustenance fishing and down to the sport fisherman of the Valley, each taking its share of the run. Thoughts of my father-in-law Vernon Nutter came to my mind. Vern’s a farmer in western Colorado — specifically North Delta and the Uncompahgre Valley. Farmers in this area of the country rely heavily on the winter snowfall and the snow runoff from the surrounding mountains to feed the water system that consists of various canals and ditches to water their crops. According to the 2012 State agriculture census Delta County consists of 1250 farms that comprise of 250,761 acres for an average farm size of 201 acres. There’s a lot of hobby farms in the county. But each farmer will fight tooth-and-nail for every drop of water.

It’s not an issue until it’s an issue

One of the controversies was the lateness in the decision by Commissioner Cotten. When pressed on the issue Cotten’s response was, “The timing of the announcement of these decisions only come into question when the salmon run is extremely low. Every other year nobody has a problem with it.” Mat-Su Board member Larry Engel questioned the timing and his point was that if other decisions can be made as early as November then the department needs to work harder at making the decisions for sport fishing as early as December. He drove home his point by stating that if business owners particularly fishing guides know in December what the season should look like then they can begin marketing for clients earlier and be more knowledgeable about what they are selling that season. And for the personal fishermen, they would be able to plan their summer earlier. Cotten agreed to work on it for next year. It will be something to watch for next year to see how sincere the commissioner is about the concerns of the Mat-Su Board.

Sharing is caring

As far as farming in western Colorado, water is not a controversy as far as irrigating crops if the snowfall that winter is abundant. You’ll see a spat here and there if someone leaves their head gate open too long and someone down the line is needing better flow to start their irrigation. Crops are irrigated by gravity feed. But when the winter snowfall in the surrounding mountains is low and water is scarce, then farming becomes a “blood sport” of its own.

Neighbors have been known to take bolt cutters to head gate locks, hit each other with their irrigation shovels and even pull a weapon on each other from time to time. Lawsuits can ensue and families can be fractured over the precious H2O. The further down the irrigation line one is the more he feels he is being wronged by the neighbors upstream.

Here, the flow of snow runoff and salmon migration tied together in my mind. And it seems that during times of low runs that if those upstream, or the beginning of the migration take less, then something can be salvaged for those downstream, or at the tail end of the migration.

I know that sounds too simplistic and maybe naive, but as an outsider looking in, it feels that simple. The meeting between the borough and the state didn’t seem to solve the emergency order for this summer but it also didn’t feel like this fight was over. And as cordial as the board was to the state representatives, and as much as we all learned in the meeting about management of the run, it didn’t ease the frustration level of those most affected. And just like in western Colorado during a drought year, only by season’s end will we know who can handle the frustration better.

It still can get ugly. Only time will tell.