May 4th was the last time I sat here writing a column and glaring out a snowy north window, and I predicted it would be the second last snowstorm of the “spring”; now it is May 29th, and I am not so sure the blizzard out there really will be our last, at least until September.
Plans were to head west to observe the salmon fly hatch, having received reports that the big, black, three or four year-old salmon fly nymphs were crawling out of the water preparatory to molting into the winged, adult form of our largest stonefly. Several years ago I headed out in gathering storm clouds to do just that and meet a couple of friends, and the next morning, June 10th, we were snowed in at the Stump Ranch south of Rocky Mountain House.
Even if the adults were emerging, the storm makes it doubtful they’d be mating and the females flying to the water to drop their egg bombs, thus inciting explosions of trout rises and fabulous fishing. My first salmon fly experience was 42 years ago on the Madison River in Montana. We had fast nymph fishing for a couple of days while the nymphs were emerging, but then came early July rain, snow and cold, and the winged adults just hung dormant for days, like exotic fruit among the snow globs in the riverside bushes, and I had not seen one flying when it came time to head for home.
A trip west not being a wise option, I did get out for some overly fresh air to check on the Skwala (a much smaller stonefly than the salmon fly) hatch at a couple of my favourite locations along the river in Red Deer. Here, the Skwalas generally emerge when the chokecherries are in full bloom, which they were, but bowed and glopped with wet snow. Swallows were flying over the water, catching something — probably snowflakes for all I could tell.
Most frequent reader comment so far this year has been generated by the column that suggested radical remedies for the annual spate of high country avalanche deaths, especially those caused by “high marking” snowmobilers, and the more recent column on the sale of crown grazing leases on public land.
Readers were unanimously in agreement on the public land issues and echoed the sentiment expressed by Alberta’s environmental elder statesman, Elmer Kure of Spruce View, when he told me he hoped “the government’s clipping service is working.” Well, it isn’t working, like most things with and for this tired old bunch, and the best answer is for readers to send a clip of that column directly to Alberta’s Auditor General.
Much of the comment on the avalanche column was generated by the B.C. government’s recent announcement of some remedial measures, including confiscation of snowmobiles, but most readers argue the new measures do not go far enough and that they should go as far, even, as leaving the bodies for Mother Nature to deal with as suggested in the column.
A new torrent of outrage over the utter, gross stupidity of certain outdoors recreationists has come from the news of the recent death of a kayaker purposely trying to “run” Lundbreck Falls on the Crowsnest River. I once spent most of a frigid February afternoon down there watching a pair of ice climbers trying to scale the frozen falls. Next, I’ll not be surprised to hear that the high marking snowmobile crowd is holding an event to see how high their infernal machines can get up those frozen falls before crashing to their deaths. In fact I’m surprised some of them haven’t been there and done that already.
There is a wave of general outrage over the way that the outdoors eco — terrorists, the yahoos, are making the rest of us pay. The recent long weekend liquor ban in provincial parks and campgrounds has really hit a nerve with the moderate people who truly enjoy the peace and quiet of the outdoors, and perhaps a beer or two around the campfire.
Random camping on public land for a little long weekend peace and quiet is not really an option for most people, because the liquor bans and increased patrolling and enforcement in the provincial parks and campgrounds has simply moved the yahoos, their booze, and their machines of mass destruction to Alberta public land, where the popular but totally erroneous view, even shared by police and enforcement officers, is that anything goes and nothing can be done about it.
As has been pointed out over and over in these columns, our Public Lands Act has many provisions to prevent and penalize destructive acts on and to our public lands and, with some amendments, could return peace, quiet and sanity to them. There should also be an annual access licence for anyone to be on public land. Why should hunters and anglers be the only Albertans to pay?
Bob Scammell is an award-winning outdoors writer living in Red Deer.