At the last Woodlands County meeting Fort Assiniboine Coun. Dale Kluin said he was upset about the province’s recent change to the fishing regulations at Dolberg Lake.
As you will read in further detail on Page 3A the new regulations no longer allow people to use bait and restrict a person to keep one trout a day as long as it is over 50 centimetres long.
Unfortunately, Mr. Kluin is not going to like my first reaction but, so what. In my home province of B.C. it is difficult to find a lake, stream or river that does not have similar restrictions. And as someone who isn’t a marine biologist, I have to accept that the powers that be know what they are doing and whatever the restriction is they are doing it to protect not only the fishery but the overall ecosystem.
One of the reasons why Coun. Kluin is upset is the lack of consultation with the neighbouring municipalities, more specifically the County of Barrhead.
The reality is governments at every level rarely consult with each other or the constituents before making creating new legislation or regulations, not counting the experts in the field that were consulted to draft the aforementioned policies. This includes Woodlands County. Don’t get me wrong Woodlands County is as transparent as any government, but as a matter of practice, it is impossible to include everyone in the process.
That being said, while I don’t necessarily take issue with the new regulation per se, as long as they were done, as I said to protect the fishery, but I do take issue with how the Fish and Wildlife department and the group from Edmonton who is pushing for the lake to become their own private trophy lake have handled the situation. More effort should have been made to not only keep the County of Barrhead, but local users in the know. As you have read in our previous stories, we have had some difficulty tracking down more about this group, although this week we have made some headway in this regard, as well as getting someone from the ministry to confirm what is going on. And from our understanding the Alberta Environment and Parks haven’t been timely answering the County of Barrhead’s inquiries or other. However in an effort to get some clarity about the situation the county has invited representatives from the Barrhead Fish and Game Association to address council on April 17. We encourage anyone who is interested in finding out more about the situation at Dolberg Lake to attend the meeting.
In the meanwhile, as Spock says in Star Trek VI we must have faith that the universe will unfold as it should, meaning trust that the experts are doing what is best for the health of the lake and not because of a group of outside fishermen.
