Upp Miss plan-Anti Tournament

Greetings, don't know if you have heard but the next 15 years of fishing and hunting in the Upper Mississippi Refuge is being decided. They are looking for input and we as TOURNAMENT ANGLERS need to come forward and attend these meetings. Many of the plan options will place major restrictions on tournaments, access and use of the refuge. In the planTOURNAMENT ANGLERS are seen as:

Tournament fishing continues to grow and is posing conflicts with other anglers and small craft users on the Refuge, and can cause habitat damage and fish and wildlife disruption in shallow backwater areas.

Oversight is needed to help coordinate timing and spacing of tournaments with the states

General fishing would continue to be promoted, although the Refuge would begin oversight of fishing tournaments in cooperation with the states and other agencies.

Fishing tournaments would be subject to Refuge permitting requirementswhich could reduce the number of tournaments, improve the quality oftournaments, and reduce impacts to others using the Refuge for recreation. The entire plan can be seen at :http://www.fws.gov/midwest/planning/uppermiss/