Whenever I have fished in Europe, one of the things that has really struck me is how difficult it is for anglers to gain access to good water without paying for it. I traveled to England for the 2000 World Fly Fishing Championships and was astonished to discover that anglers had to pay fish Chew Valley Lake, even from the bank. A quick check of the Bristol Water Fisheries website shows that the current daily bank fee is US$29.66. Imagine if you had to pay 30 bucks every time you wanted to hit the water. I can waltz down to my local river or lake any time I want, without even bringing my wallet (as long as I have my fishing license). We are incredibly blessed in this country to have access to public lands and waters, no matter where we live.
But as this video from Trout Unlimited shows, that access isn’t guaranteed forever if we don’t continue to fight to protect it:
[I]n state legislatures across the West, lawmakers are proposing bills that would force the federal government to cede our public lands to the states. Moreover, some members of Congress are calling for selling off of public lands and National Forests that for generations have belonged to all Americans.
That’s a terrible idea. States simply don’t have the resources or staff to adequately manage public lands and cover the costs of fighting fires, maintaining roads and facilities, protecting and restoring habitat and many other responsibilities now managed by the U.S. Forest Service and BLM.
Imagine if some of our most treasured public waters became inaccessible altogether, or if they were ruined by industry. If you care about preserving the public lands that make American sportsmen and -women some of the luckiest in the world, visit the TU Public Lands Action page and educate yourself about these threats.
Click here for the TU Public Lands Action page.
Hi,
I do really understand the treat to free access of the wild country, which might come true in US if some lawmakers and members of the Congress get their suggestions approved. However, even if the article is strongly against any such approvals and against any change to the present system, which is my view too, I still think that using England as an example of what could happen is a bit misleading. In large parts of Europe and Scandinavia we do have a right of access to the wilderness, also called everyman´s right in some countries. Stocked watersheds are naturally not included and like in other countries in Europe, anglers have to pay fishing licenses too. In England too this is true, apart from cultivated land, and there like in other European countries, also strong forces are trying to open up new areas in the countryside and thereby widen every man’s right to access the wilderness. Densely populated areas naturally could give an impression of the opposite, but still the wilderness in UK is by large included in the right of access for every man/woman. So eventually the strong urge there, and successful work that has been done to open up new areas for access could have been a better example in the article.
I too attended the World fly fishing competition in England 2000.
More specific info can be found at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_to_roam
Hope this helps.
See you on the waters
Harry Salmgren
Thanks for the clarification, Harry. Interesting stuff.