Cumberland Closures Seem Surreal

It's hard for me to wrap my mind around the idea that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has the authority to suddenly close recreation access immediately above and below every dam on the Cumberland River, ignoring pleas of thousands of sportsmen, recommendations of top fisheries resource managers, real numbers regarding safely and legitimate questions about the source of the $2 million price tag for the barriers and buoys they plan to construct to keep fishermen out of some of the best fishing waters in Kentucky and Tennessee.

The closures are very real, though. In fact, they are slated for April, only three months from now. Four public meetings are slated for the next couple of weeks. Visit KeepAmericaFishing for details details about the meetings, more about the plan and information to write in order to state your concerns. Unless it somehow could affect re-licensing of one of their dams, the Corps of Engineers probably doesn't care at all what the public thinks. That said, large enough turnouts at the meetings, lists of names on petitions and other forms of public outcry could potentially impact the decision making of folks in congress, which controls the Corps' budget, and the opinions of others who in some way oversee Corps operations. Another great source of updated information about this entire issue is the Doug Markham Outdoors Facebook page.

I think it's important to note that this is not just a Tennessee or Kentucky issue. Beyond the fact that folks travel from all over to fish the fabulous water below above and below the dams on the Cumberland River, this course of action affects every angler because it's a federal agency demonstrating little to no accountability to anyone and pushing forward with its own plans. This is big government deciding what's best for you and me and spending money it doesn't have in order to do so. It's the Cumberland River and the Corps today, but what other waters will be closed by which agency next week?

If you care about "public waters" being open to fishing,  you have a stake in this.