Now that the worm is so much smaller does the resolve exist to do the right thing or are we fishermen insistant that previous wrongs have been so egregious we’re going to plow forward without thought to consequences and our fair share?

The federal government is starting to trim their budget meaningfully, not meaningfully enough to abandon that trillion dollars of rare earth discovered in Afghanistan, nor is it willing to leave Iraq and 12% of the world’s petroleum to its fate,  but it’s going to play hell with a half dozen  federal fish hatcheries – as well as renege on the promise of a few dam removals and let salmon fisheries wallow their way into extinction.

States meanwhile are raising the prices on licenses 30% to 50%, closing state parks on weekdays and reducing budgets on unnecessary entities like fish & game wardens and enforcement agencies – all to plug the gaps that federal funds and their sudden withdrawal have played in their fiscal integrity.

It’s the New Austerity, complete with the economy completely “fixed”, the big banks a feeding frenzy still on life support at the fed window, Wall Street is now honest again, and only the middle class civil servants defy the new frugal, insisting on driving the country deeper in debt and into the waiting arms of the Asian menace…

Naturally, the fishing and hunting conservation pundits are crying foul, insisting on “a day of Salmonid Rage”, hosted by Starbucks and someone’s film tour, without benefit of anyone knowing what to protest, so long as they look upset and slop coffee with verve …

… which draws me back to Morgan Freeman’s speech in “Glory” – “how them white boys have been dying for years and now its time we ante up like men …”

All this living beyond our means, dining out versus eating in, and a new car every three years was supposed to teach us something. Now when things are grim there’s no talk of “the tough get tougher” – rather it’s  mail in the house keys and walk, hoping the neighbors don’t notice you lowering their property values further.

Sure, John Wayne is long gone, and the last vestiges of the Marlboro men wink meaningfully from the damp rail at the gay bar – with them the pioneers and selfless individuals that tossed the yoke of oppressors, and built this cathedral in the first place …

Yet it begs the question, with the last of the Greatest generation becoming fewer, can this be our rallying cry – and if so, “how many trout streams is our part?”

We arm wrestled federal and state governments at every turn, we claimed rare and sacred songbirds nested there, famous Indians were buried close by, and them timbers were the last refuge of the spotted owl. We litigated until we made it hideously expensive no matter what the solution was, as it was our tax dollars and it was about time that dam came out regardless of who was using it.

It’s a difficult topic to be sure. But with our conservation groups insisting we still should be angry should the teat be denied us, despite all of the hardship and suffering of those around us, it simply doesn’t sit well to resume business as usual.

With this latest tragedy in Japan demonstrating the frailty of nuclear reaction contained in our best engineering, it’s likely to come to a perfect storm for anglers, especially so due to all the uncertainty in the Middle East.

Islamic Fundamentalism could claim a couple more countries as easy as not, and we’ll feel obligated to occupy them too, or it’ll mean less oil exports due to sanctions from our government, and with nuclear no longer seen as “clean” we could see a redoubling of drilling in our interior, our exterior, and the wholesale embrace of the oil shale industry.

Which in contrast with liquid oil, is a dirty, water-intensive business.

Most of which exists in the Western trout states. Especially the Bakken deposit of North Dakota and Montana, rumored to contain as much oil as Saudi Arabia.

Fracking oil shale isn’t the same as pumping liquid oil. Freshwater is pumped into the ground to float the crude to the top and increasing a well’s recovery rate. Considering most of the West is flirting with drought due to population increase, it’s liable to add yet another commercial interest with the lawyers and politicians to force their way to the head of the table.

… where they can litigate farmers and livestock interests for the little clean water remaining.

… and they’ll bring those pipelines down from Canada, through Montana so they can carry all that brew to someplace that’ll refine it. They’ll want right of way, which won’t be hard to get especially if it involves national security or some heightened Defcon consideration.

All that’s coming soon enough, but for the time being I’m not going to protest to my senator or congressman on the next three rivers I’m asked to save. I figure that’s my share for the dream of a balanced budget given that I’ve responded like a proper whiney-bitch-spendthrift and complained that the government should save ________ by removing its dam, intervene in the water pumped south for lawns, or ban the use of dill pickles in sandwiches, all of which saved the spotted owl.

I need to save those precious goodwill-fairplay credits for when they’re really needed, like in the next couple of years …