Access to Erie streams is becoming difficult since most run through posted land

By Deborah Weisberg, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Originally posted at the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Access will be on the agenda Friday when Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission executive director Doug Austen meets with representatives of the Pennsylvania Steelhead Association and Trout Unlimited in Erie. Property postings there have reached crisis proportions.

The meeting will precede Austen's appearance later that evening at the Northwest Sportsmen's Coalition public forum in Albion, Pa. "We're going to stress our belief that easements are the way to go," said former Pennsylvania Steelhead Association president Matt Hrycyk, one of a handful of Erie anglers who serve as the Fish Commission's citizen advisors on access issues. "That, and educating the mass hordes of people who come up here to fish that when they're on private property they need to behave accordingly.

"But as far as buying up property, the commission will get a lot more bang for the buck out of easements."

The Fish Commission recently announced that it has $600,000 from the sale of the new Erie and Erie-trout "combo" stamps for purchasing property or recreational easements on Erie's most pressured steelhead streams. It has committed $200,000 toward Fairview Township's purchase of the $850,000 three-acre Brugger family property near the mouth of Trout Run, which will help ease angler parking.

Although the Fish Commission hopes to eventually quadruple the proceeds from its Erie stamps, it acknowledges that, given Erie real estate values, it will need to partner with other state agencies and private conservancies to stretch the $400,000 it has in hand. It is pouring over Erie deed books and networking with locals to identify prospects.

"Different properties have been brought to our attention, although it's a limited universe as to what's along a stream," Fish Commission spokesman Dan Tredinnick said. "At this point, we honestly don't know what, say, half a mile of public access would cost us."

Groups such as the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership try to work with states to establish easement programs, though Terry Riley, the group's vice president of public policy, said states east of the Mississippi, including Pennsylvania, have been slow to embrace the concept.

Important information on the Pere Marquette River Lamprey Weir!

Let's finish this weir thing!
By Steve Fraley, owner of Baldwin Bait and Tackle

Originally posted at http://www.fishbaldwin.com/Forum/showthread.php?t=1837

Well, once again, here it is folks. I'm just asking that you actually read this and hear me out right now if you will please as you won't hear me saying "too much" about it after this. It's not just that I won't have the time to keep this level of activism up, but it's also, hopefully, that this war is almost won.

Momentum appears to be swinging over to our side and tables are turning all over the place. On top of those that have been behind this movement from the beginning many a mind has changed here recently to reflect our own desires, even among those that are officially "experts" in the field.

Now, take just a second here if you will and seriously think about the amount of time that I must spend (Especially with my hunt and peck style of typing, it's painful for most to watch.) over the course of a year in front of my computer trying to keep you up to date on the happenings around here and then, think about what I ask in return.

The answer is that it's a VERY rare occasion that I ask anything more than you giving our shop whatever business you possibly can, but today, I'd really like you to return the favor by either typing for a minute or two yourself if you would or by AT LEAST doing a little copy and paste job with the letter we've provided here for you and sending it off to the links provided. Let's get this done, put a nail in the coffin right now and move on to better things like fishing!