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Health & Fitness

Candidates Must Protect Our Economy and Outdoor Heritage by Conserving Our Public Lands

This November, there are many choices on the ballot. One such choice is between Representative Pete Stark and his challenger, Eric Swalwell, for the new 15th Congressional District seat in Congress.

On Election Day, residents in this area will be faced with many choices on the ballot.  These choices will have long term effects for our community and our country.  One such choice is between incumbent Representative Pete Stark and his challenger, Eric Swalwell, for the new 15th Congressional District seat in Congress. 

As these two men campaign for our votes, I urge both of them to take a strong position in support of an issue that’s important to many people who live in this area – conservation of our public lands. 

As an avid sportsman, I regularly enjoy the unique public lands, waters, and sporting opportunities that our state and this district have to offer.  Locally, we are blessed with a network of regional parks that provide great hiking, biking, boating and fishing.  In this area, we are privileged to have Del Valle Reservoir close at hand, a venue which offers excellent fishing for both trout and warm water fish species.  We are also just a short drive away from the Tahoe and Mendocino National Forests and other areas that offer exceptional fishing, hunting, and other outdoor recreation opportunities. 

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There are few things that make one feel as connected to Nature as fishing.  Standing in or on the bank of a stream or lake, or rocking gently in a small boat, you hear the many voices of water, and the sensation of a fish on your line is an age-old thrill, one you want to share with family and friends (but not too many of your friends). 

Fishing, of course, depends on water.  The most popular freshwater sport fish in California – trout – requires cold, clean water – the conditions you find in streams at higher elevations, close to their headwaters.  Here in California, the headwaters of almost all of our major rivers are in national forests or national parks.  In these headwaters areas you can find the “backcountry” – large swaths of mostly undeveloped habitat for fish and game that provide a rich playground for any sportsman who prefers the freedom and lower cost of hunting and fishing on public lands.

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But our public lands are currently under assault by some in Congress, who would remove the modest protections now in place for many backcountry lands and waters in favor of promoting new road-building and other development.

We already have plenty of roads to get us deep into our public lands – there are more than 35,000 miles of roads open for motorized travel in national forests in this state.  What we don’t have plenty of are the fiscal resources to keep existing roads and trails on our public parks and forests in good working condition. 

The tradition of conserving our Great Outdoors is the foundation of California’s rich hunting and fishing heritage.  But we will need the continued support of our leaders in Washington to ensure that all the hard work accomplished by previous generations to protect our outdoor heritage is not undermined by lack of sufficient funding, short-sighted thinking and ignorance of the economic benefits of outdoor recreation – an industry of $646 billion in direct consumer spending nationwide each year.  In California, outdoor recreation is worth more than $46 billion annually to our economy and supports more than 408,000 jobs.

Outdoor recreation retailers are found throughout our region – providing jobs to this community and boosting local tax revenues.  And our public lands are the primary resource that makes possible this growing economic engine.

I urge Representative Stark and Councilmember Swalwell to issue strong, public statements of support for conserving our public lands for our community – for the enjoyment that local residents derive from these places, for the high quality fish and game habitat found in our public lands, and for the increasingly important role public lands play in our state and national economies. 

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