New Strategic Plan for TWRA

Chattanooga Fishing Forum

Help Support Chattanooga Fishing Forum:

Carl Guffey

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2006
Messages
2,463
Location
Friendsville, TN
<h2>New Strategic Plan Proposed by TWRA</h2><span class="date">Thursday, December 19, 2013 | 03:37 pm </span><div class="content clear-block">

NASHVILLE --- The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) is seeking public comment on its new proposed Strategic Plan. The plan serves as a guiding document for the agency’s mission and objectives.</p>

The new plan, to be unveiled in 2014, is unlike any previous strategic plan implemented by the agency. In decades past, due to the depletion of our wildlife resources throughout the early parts of the 20th century, the agency focused mainly on species restoration and protection. The agency followed the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation that identifies wildlife as a public trust belonging to all the people. The agency has successfully restored many species that were once considered rare or non-existent in the state. </p>

White-tailed deer, wild turkey, black bears and waterfowl are some of the most notable species that have rebounded considerably over the last few decades. The agency has also created and maintained numerous fisheries throughout the state’s waterways. </p>

With the onset of healthier fish and wildlife populations, the agency is shifting gears to focus more directly on maintaining the habitats that support those populations. The agency also recognizes the need for our citizens to have access to those areas to enjoy our abundant wildlife resources. As such, the new plan identifies four core areas in which the agency strives to provide these services while still protecting our natural resources.</p>

As a strategic plan, it is broad in nature providing long-term guidance. After public input and the completion of the final plan, much more detailed operational plans will provide the on-the-ground direction associated with the four functions of the plan.</p>

The four primary functions of TWRA and their associated goals outlined in the plan are: </p>

1.) Wildlife Resource Management - to conserve and manage wildlife resources to provide diverse wildlife communities at appropriate levels.
2.) Outdoor Recreation - to increase opportunities for hunting, fishing and boating and accommodate other outdoor recreation, such as wildlife viewing, that is safe for users and the environment yet consistent with conservation principles.
3.) Law Enforcement - to protect and conserve Tennessee’s fish, wildlife, habitats and public boating opportunities by providing public safety through proactive and responsive law enforcement services.
4.) Information and Education - to supply both the public and TWRA personnel with a constant flow of multimedia information necessary for attaining the management and conservation goals of the agency. In addition, provide the necessary information for the recruitment of outdoor participants.</p>

For a full version of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency 2014 Strategic Plan click here. To provide comment on the new plan, send an e-mail to [email protected] with “Strategic Plan” in the subject line. To send by mail, Strategic Plan Comments, Att: Cindy Pharris, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, P.O. Box 40747, Nashville, TN 37204. The deadline for submitting comments will be Jan. 21, 2014.</p></div>
 
Well 1st I would start with a public outreach and info plan to help make everyone aware. Make it easy to report any sightings. Along with a mandatory catch and kill plan. As fisherman we should be able to track the inevitable infiltration of this foreign invader. As sportsman we should make a collective proactive effort to prevent this problem that could spell disasterous results for our fisheries.
 
I agree with sniperchoke. We should start killing them as soon as they show up. Not wait till they have taken over like most fisheries do.
 
Here's the problem with introduced species: by the time they're introduced it's too late.

Before they're introduced, possession is interpreted as personal rights ("I can put whatever I want in my pond, it's on my land!") or state's rights (thanks, Arkansas!). When state management agencies try to regulate it before it happens, folks get upset. When the Feds list things as "injurious wildlife" to keep things from being moved between states, the same folks howl and scream that their rights are being infringed and it's government overreach. When you suggest closing canals or lock and dams to create hard barriers, yet another group of folks get bent out of shape!

How do you selectively kill all the carp without unacceptable bycatch of fish that you want? You can't really fish for them. Active methods like electrofishing are too labor intensive, and Asian carp can dive below the electrical field that most boats generate. Gill nets or purse seines or most other net techniques aren't selective enough -- and it's still too labor intensive to be effective.

If you catch some, heck yeah, kill them and eat them. They're tasty. But to try and suggest population control? You could waste the entire TWRA budget trying to do so and not make any appreciable dent. If you're going to educate, the time to do it is BEFORE they ever get into the U.S.

...and then we've got snakeheads across the river in Arkansas, weather loaches coming up the Coosa River from Alabama, swamp eels moving across the Coastal Plain, etc. etc. etc.
 
Ok we'll just give up then?? I understand what u are saying but I feel we should try. From what I have seen most of these fish stay shallow. There is not gonna be 1 single way to stop the carp. A combined effort of electro fishing, netting, jumping, will all reduce numbers. TWRA should look to partner with local tourney clubs, CFF, private individuals etc to help bring down costs. Heck FLW and BASS are fishing Tenn. waters regularly. Both of those entities have conservation divisions. It would take a lot of work but I would think most would want to try than just shrug their sholders??
 
Liveliner - 12/21/2013 8:14 PM
A Bounty per fish would generate targeting them for the rewards. The Cash rewards cost would be money well spent.

Wait, feeding hungry kids with gobmint $$ is paying off freeloaders, but paying folks to kill carp is money well spent? ;)

My first fisheries job involved working on a squawfish project out on the Snake River in WA/OR. Both states have paid bounties for dead squawfish that were blamed for eating endangered juvenile salmon that are trying to migrate downstream through reservoirs -- with (IMO) minimal benefit. The reservoirs are filled with (introduced) walleye, channel cats, smallmouth bass, etc that also chow heavily on the salmon, but nobody was willing to admit that gamefish were having an equivalent effect. The only thing that might have an effect on salmon survival is seasonally lowering the reservoir level or getting rid of the dams completely. There's a much longer story there...

SC, you might be able to knock adult numbers back with a massive effort -- but they reproduce so prolifically that you'd have to maintain that level of effort to keep them at a low level. Maybe stimulating commercial fishing with appropriate incentives is the way to go, but you'd have some (maybe substantial) amount of incidental take of gamefish, particularly after you've hit the backwater sloughs that currently have the highest densities. The other issue is that they're using off-channel habitats too -- so every time there's a flood you get a pulse of juveniles entering the main channel again. I wish there was an easy solution, but I think they're here to stay.

Regarding staying shallow, I heard an anecdotal story a couple weeks back where a management agency up in the Chicago area put a LOT of effort into trying to eradicate carp from a small impoundment off the Chicago sanitary canal. The following week an angler caught an #80 bighead from the lake. They are really good at evading electrofishing boats!
 
<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Here is a little reading on the Tennessee River Asian carp problem. http://www.chattanoogafishingforum.com/forums/thread-view.asp?tid=70436&posts=32&mid=537680&highlight=asian+carp&highlightmode=1&action=search</font></p>

<font size="3" face="Georgia">The only way to slow these fish down is to promote commercial fishing and create local markets to make them more valuable. You can not catch them, they are filter feeders. You might snag a few with snag hooks but that won't last long. On a side note: these fish breed at least three times a year. A ten pound silver carp female will carry 1,000,000 million eggs. So one female fish has the potential to produce 3,000,000 fish a year. </font></p>

<font size="3" face="Georgia">In two days using ten commercial fishing companies we only caught 88,000 thousand pounds of carp. With an average fish weighing 10 lbs. that is about 8,800 fish. No individual efforts will make any difference in controlling the total population.</font></p>
 
If they are focusing on habitat restoration...would they work on restoring vegetation on lakes like Watts Bar and put regulations in place to keep people from killing off any more vegetation on other reservoirs?
 
<div>
</div>

gaspergou - 12/21/2013 8:44 PM
Liveliner - 12/21/2013 8:14 PM A Bounty per fish would generate targeting them for the rewards. The Cash rewards cost would be money well spent.
Wait, feeding hungry kids with gobmint $$ is paying off freeloaders, but paying folks to kill carp is money well spent? ;)!
</p>

The Funding for the two projects you compared is not even close to being the same. For your example to make sense, you would have to overthrow the US Government. Funding for public welfare has nothing to do with wildlife conservation. Now if we figured a way to feed the fish to those hungry Kids or find a way for these fish to promote the growth of providing other foods for the public, then they would maybe have a link on the back end.</p>

</p>
 
higdon21xrd - 12/22/2013 9:20 AM If they are focusing on habitat restoration...would they work on restoring vegetation on lakes like Watts Bar and put regulations in place to keep people from killing off any more vegetation on other reservoirs?
</p>

<font size="3" face="georgia,palatino">Most of the vegetation that you are referring to is an invasive species. There will be no efforts made to influence growth from an invasive species. The Tennessee Riverin a nut shell was a barren bottomed environment with a very limited amount of native aquatic plants. It was rich in planktons and supported a rich diversity of animals. With the current invasion of "Asian" carps that are filter feeders, thecurrent production source does not look good either. The Tennessee may soon become a pure water source withlimited viable uses. The Asian carps can eat themselves out of existence. If they are able to do that then every other creature in the river will disappear also.</font></p>
 

Latest posts

Back
Top