Yuma Bassmasters wants to express our vehement opposition to closing navigable waters on the Colorado River to raise endangered species of fish under Endangered Species Act.
 
Our main concern is that both state and federal agencies are attempting to permanently cordon off virtually all of the navigable back waters from Lake Havasu to the Imperial Dam on the lower Colorado River.
 
Please note this includes both the Arizona and California back waters that are presently enjoyed by thousands of taxpaying citizens who frequent these waters for sporting and pleasure! Additionally, and most disturbingly, these agencies are planning to barricade these back water lakes and channels for a minimum of 50 years and will destroy all existing species of fish in these waters to "sterilize" them so that they can raise endangered Humpback chubs and carp.
 
Yuma Bassmasters is but one of about a dozen bass fishing clubs that fish tournaments on the lower Colorado on a regular basis. These clubs are responsible for the infusion of hundreds of thousands of dollars into our local and state economy.
 
Add to that the thousands of other people from all over the United States who play on our river throughout the year and you can quickly visualize the tremendous negative economic impact that would result if the proposed back water lakes and channels were permanently closed.
 
Members of our club have interviewed countless people from all over our region and not one person has been willing to give up these navigable waters. Businesses throughout our community are also in fierce opposition.
 
Because of the overwhelming support to keep our back water areas open to the public, we are presently meeting with our attorneys to protect our rights. Concurrently, we are proactively poised to ally our community and the news media to save our waters. We have seen what is taking place in Lake Havasu and we are taking this matter very seriously.
 
Fortunately, there is a viable compromise and a common sense approach that would have virtually no negative impact on our navigable waters.
 
We identified several landlocked lakes including Headquarters Lake on the Imperial Wildlife Refuge which would be good substitute waters for the targeted navigable lakes and channels given the fact they are inaccessible to the public. We identified enough back water to more than meet the requirements for the 150 acres needed on the Arizona side of the Colorado to raise the endangered species.
 
We consider this approach to be least injurious solution to the back water debacle. Our greatest concern is that the applicable agencies will want to take the easy approach which entails prohibiting access to our presently navigable and most prime public lakes as a matter of convenience for them. Given the present deplorable state of our economy, this is simply a ludicrous and unacceptable approach.


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DAVE GREAVES
Yuma Bassmasters president