2010

3/9/10 Special Report

A tempest in a teapot or a call to worms?

In my casual reading tonight I found something that might get some people excited. In a nutshell, Obama issued an executive order a while back that would create a federal organization with widely sweeping powers to regulate ocean, Great Lakes, and inland waters management. Some people in the fishing industry are saying that it could be the end of sport fishing, ocean, inland, and Great lakes. The folks at ESPN, BASS, the ASA and others are pretty excited about it.

I read through the interim report that the executive order discharged people with generating. It is an environmentalist and global warming advocate’s dream. There were a lot of enviro-centric generalities and some very broad and sweeping powers advocated, and they kept bringing up global warming.

What wasn’t in there was a direct reference to banning sport fishing. Apparently the pro-fishing groups that were in on the planning did not like where it was expected to go once generalities like ecosystem based management and marine spatial planning became more specific mandates in the hands of the environmentalist driven new agency. There have been some fishing area closures recently that they see as a beginning to more sweeping threats to anglers via this order.

Again specific environmental organizations were not mentioned in the report, but several blogs & articles suggest that that some of the more extreme ones like the WWF were very proactive in the planning and just under the surface.

I have issues with it with or without a direct threat to fishing. First of all, something this sweeping should be introduced as legislation and passed into law, not enacted by fiat via executive order. I know that sixty or eighty  million fishermen will freak out and stop the law if you went the legislative route, and that might be unpleasant, but didn’t we used to be a representative republic?

Number two, don’t we already have like 6 federal agencies that dabble into ocean and waterways management above and beyond regional organizations and the DNR? What exactly is the crisis that requires another one, and how do you figure on paying for all of these wild fantasies?

If these folks really do intend on limiting or stopping sport fishing they are about to get their heads bit off by the biggest meanest grizzly bear in the land, the American fisherman. People are very passionate about their fishing, and there are a lot of us. A wise man wouldn’t tangle with that.

I don’t know if this is a direct threat to fishing or not, but I can do without it.

RJB

Here are links..

http://www.whitehouse.gov/assets/documents/09_17_09_Interim_Report_of_Task_Force_FINAL2.pdf

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/saltwater/news/story?id=4975762

http://www.asafishing.org/newsroom/news_pr100509.html

http://www.asafishing.org/newsroom/news_pr022310.html

http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/fishing/news/story?id=4522316

Tuesday March 9th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Thank you guys that commented for your support. It is much appreciated. I think that I like the new site, it is possibly the best one yet. I still haven’t finished the header image, but the one of the aurora and sprites is pretty cool too.

Yesterday was beautiful outside. It was mostly sunny and by Athelstane Weather’s account, 61.2F. I saw 58 on the Accuweather gadget on the left side of the site, and 65 in the sun out back. A few people disagreed that it went over 60, but I am not one of them.

I was outside working on the truck in a T-shirt and was hot much of the time. For once we had a warm spring day without the wind coming and putting a chill on it. As you saw in the pix yesterday, it really knocked down some snow & ice.

After working for a while I got a pretty ugly case of spring fever, and recruited Chris to go for a ride.  Here are a few pictures..

Today is a little different. It is in the 40s and as the rain gets closer the fog is creeping in. I am not a fan of fog. Not only is it hard to drive in, that is our snow evaporating, which I would much rather see in the river or lakes.

The NWS has the rain starting tonight and going through Friday night. On the GFS the precip keeps coming as the storm backs up and does it a little more, with rain into Sunday. Sunday and Monday it is showing it as snow. (1-3, 2-4?)

A lot of the time the rain will be light. There are a few heavier waves of rain associated with the storm too. The total QPF for the storm is between 1-1.75″. Too bad that isn’t snow (12-20″).

I did see some road ban signs up yesterday.

This just came in minutes ago.. (TY Eric!)

From: John Scott, Forestry and Parks Administrator
Subject: ATV Trail Closure
For the 2010 season, the entire Marinette County ATV Trail
System will be closed to all vehicles effective March 15, 2010.
This closure is required to protect the soft trail bed from
erosion damage caused by ATV’s and other vehicles during spring
breakup. ATV trails will re-open when conditions warrant.
Another press release will be placed in the paper when the
trails are re-opened.
________________________

Usually the ATV trils reopen the first weekend in May, but that is subject to change with conditions.

Well  have to get back to work. I just wanted to say thanks, catch up on the weather, and show you the pictures. Now I have to pay the price for enjoying yesterday.

Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Monday March 8th, 2010

Afternoon Update

2:30pm

What a day.. 61 & mostly sunny. I was outside working on my truck and sweating.

A lot has melted fast in the last two days. The snowmobile track pictures show a real story. A few days ago they were sitting on a 2-3″ ice layer. they still are, but only in the shade of the machine.

Also included are some guys that visited the Rapids recently.

The sun and 50s and 60s really had their way with the ice here.  It isn’t too muddy, making me wonder how much frost we have in the ground.

Early Updates 1 & 2..

Welcome!

Check out the new site!

There is a lot going on, so I will give you a little tour.

First up, you can leave comments here. That in itself is pretty big stuff. I encourage you to click the little comment link below each post and speak your onions, contribute some info or an event, or ask questions.

It is a cool system. You give your e-mail address, which is checked against an up to the second database of spammers. Usually after two approved posts you don’t have to have me approve your comments. You don’t have to log in, remember passwords or any of that. I used it on the snowmobiling page and it was a hit.

Item two is the contact info. If you need to let me know something, or need to contact me about a web site, use the little Feedback Tab on the left. It pops out a form that sends me your message.

On the top left we have a big new Accuweather widget. It is the best that I have seen, with forecast, radar, 15 day forecast and all kinds of stuff. There is also a new AccuWeather map page link in the weather links. This opens a page of many weather forecast maps, satellite, radar, and all kinds of weather stuff.

There is now also a public bulletin board page. Leave a comment and post your stuff.

Beyond that there is a lot to talk about.

We had a very warm weekend. Saturday we saw 56 and Sunday we saw 58, with sun both days. Between the warmth and the sun it was very nice outside.

The warm temps really made some headway melting down the big ice base that was under the snow. In sunny spots it ate a lot of it, in shady spots it melted it soft and slushy several inches deep.

The same clear skies that have been bringing us a lot of sun have also brought cold nights. This past week had warm days but nights in the teens. It isn’t quite July yet.

Those cold nights have been refreezing the sunny spots, and they are not too muddy yet. About the time the sun starts winning, the day is over and it freezes back up, so the mud isn’t too deep yet.

I haven’t heard word about the road bans, but they have to go into effect any day now if they aren’t already. The road ban is a weight limit banning heavy trucks while the gravel and soil under the road base is soft during frost out.

Likewise once the snowmobile trails close, the ATV trails close for the same reason, soft trails during frost-out. Usually they reopen the first weekend in May.

Whitewater rafting starts April 3rd with Kosir’s. A lot of people think that because we didn’t have many snow storms over the winter, that we are way behind on water. It just isn’t so. The majority of the Peshtigo River watershed is up near Crandon. I saw the other day that they are right at normal for rainfall since August.

We are starting a little from behind from the dry summer last year, but our October rains helped that a lot, and so did the winter rains. The Christmas storm and the mid-winter storm brought a lot of rain before the snow came. The end result is that we are still down, but not as much as you would think.

Current forecast models show several big storms possible in the coming two weeks. It has been showing the breakdown of the high pressure that shielded us from winter storms. Our El Nino should be weakening any day now, and often that brings changes that can produce a stormy period for us. It would have been nice if it would have come in winter, but I do still expect it this spring or early summer.

In the short term weather..

The next few days look nice and warmer than normal. We should see temps cross the 50 degree mark today and Tuesday. As of 9:30am, Athelstane Weather is at 46, so it is a pretty good bet that we will see a warm day.

About Wednesday a storm will come this way and affect our weather for almost a week. It looks like off and on rain into the weekend, and a chance of it changing to snow Sunday & Monday.

The concensus at Rapids Saturday night was that we likely will see a spring snowstorm or two. The conversants had a hard time believing that we would get away with two winters in a row that never had a foot or more of snow in one storm.

THAT is why I am still dragging around the plow on the truck and haven’t summerized the snowmobiles yet. The plow will probably get taken back off today.

In events we have bucket golf at Dockside this Saturday. They are also having a meat and prize raffle along with it. It should be a big event and a chance for people to check out their new addition where the patio used to be.

Later in March we have a poker run coming up with the nice folks at Firelane Bar, the Chute Pond Snowmobile Club Banquet, and a sports show. Whitewater rafting with Kosir’s starts the first weekend in April.

That is about it from here. Have a good morning and thank you for visiting!

RJB

What Happened?!

Greetings and welcome!

I am planning a little different way of doing things here this spring. Keep visiting and you will see some changes. My first spring update is coming very soon.

In the meantime I have a lot to do transferring all of the info needed on this page, and it will take a little time. You will note that you don’t need the .html in the web address any more. Here is a link back to the old page.

One thing that will be new this spring is that you will be able to leave comments. This was a big step up on the snowmobile page, since the visitors here know more collectively than I ever could.

You will probably see a variety of looks to the page as I play with and modify different themes. If you like one, leave a comment!

More to follow very soon!

RJB