Flathead battle.

[Quantoson]

if not then, there, and in that manner; when, where, and how do you ever make a stand ?

We did try to make a stand but money won.  Even though I feel very adamant that they have made the wrong choice I don't see where deliberately obstructing an approved legal action will benefit our group.  It will give the public the wrong view of what I am trying to represent. 

Like wolf hunts, I support in full and do not expect some furry animal lover to obstruct or interrupt my activities just because they think it's wrong that I exercise my legal rights as a hunting license holder.  Deliberately disrupting the netting is not within legal rights unless there is some permit to apply for in protest.  A court ordered injunction would be the reasonable answer but then again $$$$ which I personally do not have.

I am not preaching what to do and what not to do, just makes sense that being detained and maybe arrested could jeopardize my rights to keep my firearms, hunt and fish.  That is not worth the risk for me.  But to each his or her own.

[Stephan_K]

Well one thing everyone can do, at this point, is stay out of the Indian owned businesses !   Openly boycott all of them........  don't support res anything, no purchasing res licenses especially and simply stay off the reservation all together.  Eventually this behavior will resonate as more people become aware of what you are doing and why.  And the resonating lost business revenue is serious action !  It wouldn't take much at all to take away tribal revenue greater than what they're raking in from BP........  At the end of the day, they will be financing the netting themselves.

[halijigmt]

The res don't care,they will still be handing out our tax dollars to them.

[Quantoson]

I concur with Stephan_K. 
Last year I did not fish any of the Res so they lost my few dollars.  Did not buy gas, goods or even stop in any of the Reservations in Montana or Idaho just because of the eradication proposals in both States.  It was personal and meager dollars but I felt good about it.    My wife wasn't too happy about it since she likes visiting and buying items to send to her family in Europe.

@halijigmt
Yeah but I feel good about what I am doing.

[Cornbread]

The CSKT is one of the wealthiest tribes in the US and they don't even have the gambling/casino shelter stuff that many of the other wealthy tribes do. I support a boycott of them but unless you get every non-tribal member who lives on the rez to buy into that boycott it isn't going to do much good. Their main streams of revenue are secure boycott or not.

[Stephan_K]

I concur with Stephan_K. 
Last year I did not fish any of the Res so they lost my few dollars.  Did not buy gas, goods or even stop in any of the Reservations in Montana or Idaho just because of the eradication proposals in both States.  It was personal and meager dollars but I felt good about it.    My wife wasn't too happy about it since she likes visiting and buying items to send to her family in Europe.

@halijigmt
Yeah but I feel good about what I am doing.

And the more people you take the 30 seconds to explain that too the more that will follow suit..........  I'd put my money on revenue loss multiple times the $mill they are getting from BP if everyone held "their" few dollars from the tribe where they can.  Those people will want their gov reps heads on a stick halfway through the year if they knew why the loss was happening.  Hell...... that simple $mill could be eliminated easily in lack of license purchases alone directly hitting the tribes bottom line.  And openly boycotting tribal business is a way to get more of their "influential people" on the right side of this mess.

I'd love to see boycott fliers with a simple explanation of this mess with web links to actual data, for anyone to see for themselves if interested, on every car every day in the Kwataqnuk resort parking lot.......... and every other casino on the res.  Wonder how many tourists would move on sooner than planned because of it or skip the place all together.   That's cheap affective marketing right there.   Take up a collection and advertise the same on the big billboard right next to the resort !     That's pretty expensive though....

[sra61]

We've all seen the loss of the timber industry, lack of willingness to explore our own energy potential, loss of recreational opportunity. The list is too long to reel off. It seems to me the thing to do is take the plays from their own playbook. The way they always win is in the courts. I have no idea how something like that would be done. Someone must know. The problem I see is that Flathead Lake is half on the rez. I'm not sure there is much that could be done with that obstacle, except a federal ruling. I seem to be unable to explain how much their meddling upsets me. I loved Flathead Lake, and moved up here to be able to fish it. I haven't fished it for at least a couple of years now. I have basically given up on the subject. There don't seem to be enough people around here that care. Maybe there are enough TU guys that see it the opposite way, that's possible. It just looks to me like what they are headed for is a great big beautiful lake that's really poor fishing for generations to come. But I guess they can all feel warm and cozy with the thought that what few fish do swim there are native species, assuming they don't finally finish off the Bulls with their bycatch in the nets! 

[Quantoson]

sra61,

The court is the answer but unless we have our own Representatives and Governor acknowledge the issue.....well it will remain mute.  I personally feel the Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks have the best leverage for stopping this in court but they seem to not want to approach the issue in this manner.  If MT. FWP gave even the endorsement to stop or to file the injunction, then we would have a somewhat better opportunity to start legal proceedings.

[halijigmt]

Convince the wolf fools they are a main source of feed for wolf pups,they will sue for you.

[SLIMMETT]

The CSKT could care less if there was an effort launched to boycott Reservation businesses and recreational opportunities because of opposition to netting Lake Trout on the Resevation portion of Flathead Lake.  The amount of tourism through the Reservation increases every year creating revenue for all of those businesses that are legitimate.  I would venture to guess less recreational use, hunting, fishing, etc. would not be of any concern to CSKT either.
What if this netting effort is successful?  What if Cutthroat and Bull Trout populations recover and the Lake Trout benefit also?  Will those of you opposed to this now fish the Reservation portion of Flathead Lake ten years from now if their efforts are successful? 

[coldcreekchris]

first of all...the feds are never going to go against the tribe in this scenario.....secondly. .who's business are you going to hurt by boycotting businesss within the rez boundries... lots of mom and pop type places owned by a varying degree of tribal/ non tribal and combos of both....thirdly....the mac population has exploded exponentially....even with the hundreds of thousands caught at mac days over the past few yrs.. the population is still increasing....the mac pop is there.....maybe it does need to get thinned every decade....the shrimp fiasco may be the indicator that brought this on...and trusting the "experts" to do right has got me a little queasy....to bring up wolf logic and the timber industry in this argument is ludicrous....tribal fish and game and tribal forestry...kill their share of wolves and cut their fair share of trees....if you feel that you need to make a statement and not buy a rez permit and fish their waters...I totally understand the ethics...do it....but people who b***h about the timber industry..and then buy their Canadian lumber from home depot...or boycott local stores.. then get their groceries from superwalmart.....well. ..the hypocracy runs deep....I am all for people doing what they feel righteous about deep down....say what you want about the tribe....some warranted...some misguided...but they are a soveirgned nation.....so if you boycott them....no hair off their chest.....less people fishing and floating the flathead....less people catching monster pike and giant large mouth and smallies.....but imho.....boycotting them would be like people boycotting walmart and starbucks.....maybe there is some sound ethical reasoning.....but lets be realistic...I am just surprised that somehow some anti Obama rhetoric didn't get slipped in as well.....the lakers are there.....taking 500,000 out will only be temporary....

[badlandspc]

It is too bad the fishery had Mysis Shrimp added to Flathead lake, but now that it was, Flathead was changed to a lake trout fishery. I don't see how this can be changed now.  Flathead became a world class lake trout fishery, I don't think destroying that will make it a good cutthroat, and bull trout fishery, with the Mysis Shrimp still being a major part of Flatheads ecosystem.  Unless you remove both the Mysis Shrimp and the lake trout this is just a futile effort.  So all I see is Flathead becoming a really poor fishery, which is really sad and bad economically for the entire area. If the tribe or FWP knew how too fix it that would be different, maybe........

[PerchAssault]

I have NO intention of blocking the boats, not planning a blockade, obstruction etc.  But I WILL be fishing.  And observing.

The Final EIS http://www.mackdays.com/resources/Flathead-Lake-_LakeTrout-FEIS.pdf indicates the ENTIRE lake is up for netting so...

Comment period is thru March 23, but unless a fatal flaw in the process is found, it is just a formality.

I honestly believe that if bycatch DOES exceed expectations that Trout Unlimited and the USFWS would be obliged to step in and recommend stopping it...but, once it starts, all bets are off.

The best way to make a stand is to support Flathead Wildlife, INC, they are leading the legal challenges and need our help.  For every new member that signs up over the next few months, they will put you in the drawing for a brand new Marcum VS 625 underwater camera. Watch for ads in the Flathead Beacon on how to join and for more info and if you want contact info for them PM me and I will get you in touch with them.

Mike

[sra61]

The best way to make a stand is to support Flathead Wildlife, INC, they are leading the legal challenges and need our help.  For every new member that signs up over the next few months, they will put you in the drawing for a brand new Marcum VS 625 underwater camera. Watch for ads in the Flathead Beacon on how to join and for more info and if you want contact info for them PM me and I will get you in touch with them.

Mike, are they working on some type of legal challenge? When I looked at their website I didn't see anything about that. If they are, I would definitely be interested in some membership and or donation information.
Thanks

[Jim F]

So, what will become of the netted fish?
And how does the tribe intend to not permit
"shenanigans" from the netters trying to turn in money fish?
Don't even try and tell me it wont be attempted

[Quantoson]

So, what will become of the netted fish?
Will be donated to local food bank, only the smaller fish since the mercury content on the larger is too high.
And how does the tribe intend to not permit
"shenanigans" from the netters trying to turn in money fish?
In my opinion the tribe should have the names of the netting employees.
Don't even try and tell me it wont be attempted
Who Knows?

[RAM1961]

I'm confused with how the boycotting idea will hurt the tribe and not anybody who isn't tribal.  For example, let's talk just fishing - something anybody can do with proper licensing.

1. I can get my non-tribal residential licenses online, including fishing license, and it also allows me to fish most everywhere else in this state.

2. I need fishing gear - where do I go?  Ronan Sports and Western?  Non-tribal owners.  Westland Seed - non-tribal owners to my knowledge.  Walmart - non-tribal owners.  Ace Hardware (they have small fishing section) - non-tribal owners.  Town Pump for bait?  non-tribal owners.  Gambles Hardware or Cenex in St. Ignatius?  Non-tribal owned.  Zimmer Tackle - I don't know for sure.  I know too many people around here that I would never guess to be tribal, but are.  But my point is this, who is really getting hurt if I boycott fishing within reservation boundaries?

3.  The tribe is well taken care of by our federal government (and therefore us) thru treaties and what not.

4.  This tribe is economically smart - they understand the hand that feeds them.