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Collecting with License

Hi Jay,

	All gets down to this for me, the politicians eventually seek
reelection, and are therefore somewhat responsive to the will of the
people. That keeps them as honest as we are likely to see anyone given
the power to say what we can or can't do concerning aquatic life and the
environment. I don't mean by that that I am somehow against the
biologists, on the contrary, they have a great deal of input to
contribute to the understanding of needed and reasonable approaches to
the problems of the wildlife, but contributing is one thing, controlling
is quite another.
	That doesn't mean I expect or desire the politicians do something just
because its the popular thing at the time, cause that could mean
anything. I mean provide wider paths to educate the common people to
appreciate the aquatic life. Involvement of the common person is the
only long term solution, human nature being what it is. If folks don't
care about the problems, it becomes "somebody else's" problem, and not
their concern. Guess where that leads? Apathy, indifference to laws that
would protect the aquatic environment, not nearly enough funding for
worthy and NEEDED projects cause folks that hold the purse strings just
have no motivation to give money to a non popular, exclusive, or
otherwise viewed as elitist type program, don't care how many biologist
send them email, they never even see it. Bet on it. The biologist block
vote is not a well known factor in modern politics. And experts are a
dime fer two dozen, generally viewed as the guy trotted out to support
whatever the opposition is proclaiming, whomever the opposition is!
Everyone has a few in the back pocket, just in case they are called for
at a hearing somewhere. :)
	Want to really affect lasting changes for the positive? Get those kids
to the river or creek when ya can, fer sure, and look for ways to help
open doors of opportunity for common people to appreciate aquatic life.
Less restrictive laws with greater involvement through collector's
license and getting cheap, easy to care for native fish to the homes of
average folks without a lot of red tape is one sure ticket to include
rather than exclude the voting public. This may in time even help to pay
the salaries of devoted biologists to come on many worthy projects that
are out of the question now, cause the money is not there, cause the
people don't care to spend money to fix the problems, or find solutions
to potential problems before they spiral out of control.

Herb
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