[Riverjim]

Kkevvey I am glad to have you join me. The fish and game dept. does the best they can with limited funds, but due to budget constraints and the need to check all the seacoast fish ladders on a daily basis the department utilizes volunteers on weekends to keep overtime costs to a minimum. Thats where we come in.

I have been doing this for three years and this will be four. It has not only been a great experience, but also I believe that getting the public involved with protecting our resources is much better than leaving the government to be totaly responsible. Like in other stewerdship roles, when the public gets involved it causes a closer sense of community, a sense of pride in being part of the sollution, and the realization that the problems and competing interests being encountered by the professionals are a daunting task.

We as fisherman might want to save the herring, and at times the best sollution would be to remove dams, but the pros have the competing interests such as drinking water for man, flood control, fire supressing needs (as in the discusion reguarding removing the Taylor River dam) and land owner issues that have strongly opposing fealings. Cutting through all of this to acomplish what is best for the environment yet takes into account the needs of human kind has given me a new found respect for the complexity of what the Fish and Game department has to go through and an admoration for there hard work.