I revised and finished an article for New Jersey Federated Sportsmen's Clubs News very early Monday morning. This organization I deeply respect, not for conservatism per se, but for the grounded quality I find in relation to both fact and story material. The editor, Oliver Shapiro, is first rate. When he's improved sentences of mine, I've endured without complaint. He knows the publication through and through, and so he commits the right tweaks to keep its communication finely tuned to the readership. His vigilance never flags.
I sent him the article, on lake trout, by email at about the usual time. With very few--if any--exceptions, always after midnight the second Monday of the month. Then I went downstairs to settle into reading an issue of Fly Fisherman. I read a few sentences when something clicked, so I came back upstairs to write this piece for Litton's Lines I work on now with the intention of keeping it in Drafts. Something important had triggered in my mind, but I will post about my trout fishing later on Monday first.
Here we go.
I could have contacted fisheries biologist Sean Crouse of New Jersey Fish and Wildlife for the News article on lake trout. Could have asked him about why lake trout seem to come in close at Round Valley during the severest cold, even though--by late December--that reservoir is plenty cold, and lakers like 50-degree water anyway. (Even with average late December weather, that water surely isn't much warmer than when under weather extremely cold.) Is there something I'm missing, I could ask. And of course, his authority on the page would help, right?
As a Round Valley Trout Association member, I met Mr. Crouse in March. He was enthusiastic about a question I submitted to him before the meeting, but as the presentation began after we spoke and throughout, I felt uneasy. The relationship between authority and club didn't seem right, even though many members asked further questions after he finished speaking. This wasn't an issue of silence among the public, but the uneven balance of attitude between state and public I observe is normal, as such events have unfolded since the day the Constitution was ratified, but certainly not the only normal way for public and a state official to interact. For me personally, and I would italicize "personally," if that didn't give undue emphasis, considering that my real concern here is impersonal, but nevertheless, for me personally, I felt as if putting the official on a pedestal would ultimately disrespect us both. And as a matter of fact, I asked whether or not barred sunfish are present in the reservoir, in such a direct manner that Mr. Crouse felt compelled to (impulsively, humanly) utter the Latin name for the species, a moment which could have been awkward, but because of it's timing and quick attentive regard for me, when our eyes met with an electrified flash of mutual recognition, it felt uncannily perfect. I did not know and do not remember that Latin name, but at age 9, I was obsessed with zoology, and my mother had the intention of my learning Latin that year (1970) for the purpose of my pursuing science. I did not learn Latin, and though I did feel a little overwhelmed at this prospect that never came about, I thought about it a lot, and took interest in a "Latin" course during 7th grade I felt was too slow and too much by rote to follow. It was just some adjunct of some other "period."
I emailed Mr. Crouse almost immediately after the meeting. He had sent me a pdf of the presentation, and I asked if I could use a particular photo from it for my blog. No answer came. So I confronted him on this by forwarding the email message, telling him it's no loss to me if I can't use the photo, but if I can use it, that's a simple plus. Could I. He replied and told me he had to seek approval. I could have shot back and told him not to trouble himself, but I guess I was stymied. He wrote in that same email that he would get back to me.
That's what the state is for the most part, in my humble opinion. Trouble.
Since Mr. Crouse never got back to me about that photo, if I were to email for information to stack up the import of my article on lakers, I might expect no reply, but I could phone him. One of my readers often does, and they talk fishing at length. I suspect this wouldn't be so easy for me. That's an irony. If you were to get in my shoes and feel what went between Sean and I, when I asked about the sunfish, you could understand. Other guys for whom the state seems normal as an authority have no problem speaking to him informally on the phone.
There's another consideration. Not that I should presume of an authority not knowing something and claiming that he does, when I have no such evidence, but simply to acknowledge my preemptive refusal to ask, when the state of affairs is as I have outlined. You guys and gals read my posts. So you know that when I don't know something, I'm not afraid to say so. Why should authority be any different? Aren't we each human beings who don't know everything? We certainly know very, very little; no matter how great the genius any of us possesses--very little, compared to what is. So it's never contrary to the (true) pride of any representative of any organization--I certainly presume--to admit of not knowing.
I don't know what other factors might be involved in why lake trout prefer to come in close to shore during periods of severe cold. I don't even know if this proposition is true. In the article I only say I have some evidence it is true. But I don't need a state official's authority to beef up the text. Especially since the particular official I have in mind has already gone against his own word in relation to me.
The greatest--in my opinion--philosopher of all time, Aristotle, wrote very simple words: "To know is not enough." But what can this mean? Many things. And for one, the sand flies back in the face of any man who "needs" to know in order to presumably keep face, when he does not know, but feels and behaves as if he should. This is not to say such a man might not advance to knowing better, and this is not to say this might not be a good thing. Only to say that it's perfectly OK if he does not know, right now, and he shouldn't feel awkward about that; he shouldn't have to look over his shoulder to an agency that might make demands unwarranted by the facts of life. It's not to demand humility of officials who rightly should take proud stances, but simply to discriminate between an authentic willingness of an official to engage and keep a true dialogue, and, on the other hand, an evasion. This latter state of affairs is one of cowering and flight from responsibility. It's completely beside the point, if Mr. Crouse's time is limited. So is mine. But as I say, I will respond to everyone who comments on this blog. I actually do so, unless it's spam. I felt at the Round Valley Trout Association discussion as if the state "didn't have enough time" for us, so to speak, when RVTA is the prime voice of stakeholders in the fishery. The discussion did not probe indepth, in my opinion, particularly on the issue of whether or not stocking herring is a good idea after the structural work on the reservoir is completed and water levels rise. That's something members wanted to do. Me included. Anyone can judge--by common sense--that untold tons of vegetation growing in along shorelines, with the water level drastically lowered, will produce some fertility, which these herring might live on for awhile, and yet the issue was given short shrift as Crouse moved the discussion along. Surely he knew this was a prime concern of ours.
That attitude I mentioned. I find in the public, everywhere, awe before authority. But individuals forget that they have authority of their own, which should come first.
http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/03/round-valley-reservoir-rvta-trout.html
I sent him the article, on lake trout, by email at about the usual time. With very few--if any--exceptions, always after midnight the second Monday of the month. Then I went downstairs to settle into reading an issue of Fly Fisherman. I read a few sentences when something clicked, so I came back upstairs to write this piece for Litton's Lines I work on now with the intention of keeping it in Drafts. Something important had triggered in my mind, but I will post about my trout fishing later on Monday first.
Here we go.
I could have contacted fisheries biologist Sean Crouse of New Jersey Fish and Wildlife for the News article on lake trout. Could have asked him about why lake trout seem to come in close at Round Valley during the severest cold, even though--by late December--that reservoir is plenty cold, and lakers like 50-degree water anyway. (Even with average late December weather, that water surely isn't much warmer than when under weather extremely cold.) Is there something I'm missing, I could ask. And of course, his authority on the page would help, right?
As a Round Valley Trout Association member, I met Mr. Crouse in March. He was enthusiastic about a question I submitted to him before the meeting, but as the presentation began after we spoke and throughout, I felt uneasy. The relationship between authority and club didn't seem right, even though many members asked further questions after he finished speaking. This wasn't an issue of silence among the public, but the uneven balance of attitude between state and public I observe is normal, as such events have unfolded since the day the Constitution was ratified, but certainly not the only normal way for public and a state official to interact. For me personally, and I would italicize "personally," if that didn't give undue emphasis, considering that my real concern here is impersonal, but nevertheless, for me personally, I felt as if putting the official on a pedestal would ultimately disrespect us both. And as a matter of fact, I asked whether or not barred sunfish are present in the reservoir, in such a direct manner that Mr. Crouse felt compelled to (impulsively, humanly) utter the Latin name for the species, a moment which could have been awkward, but because of it's timing and quick attentive regard for me, when our eyes met with an electrified flash of mutual recognition, it felt uncannily perfect. I did not know and do not remember that Latin name, but at age 9, I was obsessed with zoology, and my mother had the intention of my learning Latin that year (1970) for the purpose of my pursuing science. I did not learn Latin, and though I did feel a little overwhelmed at this prospect that never came about, I thought about it a lot, and took interest in a "Latin" course during 7th grade I felt was too slow and too much by rote to follow. It was just some adjunct of some other "period."
I emailed Mr. Crouse almost immediately after the meeting. He had sent me a pdf of the presentation, and I asked if I could use a particular photo from it for my blog. No answer came. So I confronted him on this by forwarding the email message, telling him it's no loss to me if I can't use the photo, but if I can use it, that's a simple plus. Could I. He replied and told me he had to seek approval. I could have shot back and told him not to trouble himself, but I guess I was stymied. He wrote in that same email that he would get back to me.
That's what the state is for the most part, in my humble opinion. Trouble.
Since Mr. Crouse never got back to me about that photo, if I were to email for information to stack up the import of my article on lakers, I might expect no reply, but I could phone him. One of my readers often does, and they talk fishing at length. I suspect this wouldn't be so easy for me. That's an irony. If you were to get in my shoes and feel what went between Sean and I, when I asked about the sunfish, you could understand. Other guys for whom the state seems normal as an authority have no problem speaking to him informally on the phone.
There's another consideration. Not that I should presume of an authority not knowing something and claiming that he does, when I have no such evidence, but simply to acknowledge my preemptive refusal to ask, when the state of affairs is as I have outlined. You guys and gals read my posts. So you know that when I don't know something, I'm not afraid to say so. Why should authority be any different? Aren't we each human beings who don't know everything? We certainly know very, very little; no matter how great the genius any of us possesses--very little, compared to what is. So it's never contrary to the (true) pride of any representative of any organization--I certainly presume--to admit of not knowing.
I don't know what other factors might be involved in why lake trout prefer to come in close to shore during periods of severe cold. I don't even know if this proposition is true. In the article I only say I have some evidence it is true. But I don't need a state official's authority to beef up the text. Especially since the particular official I have in mind has already gone against his own word in relation to me.
The greatest--in my opinion--philosopher of all time, Aristotle, wrote very simple words: "To know is not enough." But what can this mean? Many things. And for one, the sand flies back in the face of any man who "needs" to know in order to presumably keep face, when he does not know, but feels and behaves as if he should. This is not to say such a man might not advance to knowing better, and this is not to say this might not be a good thing. Only to say that it's perfectly OK if he does not know, right now, and he shouldn't feel awkward about that; he shouldn't have to look over his shoulder to an agency that might make demands unwarranted by the facts of life. It's not to demand humility of officials who rightly should take proud stances, but simply to discriminate between an authentic willingness of an official to engage and keep a true dialogue, and, on the other hand, an evasion. This latter state of affairs is one of cowering and flight from responsibility. It's completely beside the point, if Mr. Crouse's time is limited. So is mine. But as I say, I will respond to everyone who comments on this blog. I actually do so, unless it's spam. I felt at the Round Valley Trout Association discussion as if the state "didn't have enough time" for us, so to speak, when RVTA is the prime voice of stakeholders in the fishery. The discussion did not probe indepth, in my opinion, particularly on the issue of whether or not stocking herring is a good idea after the structural work on the reservoir is completed and water levels rise. That's something members wanted to do. Me included. Anyone can judge--by common sense--that untold tons of vegetation growing in along shorelines, with the water level drastically lowered, will produce some fertility, which these herring might live on for awhile, and yet the issue was given short shrift as Crouse moved the discussion along. Surely he knew this was a prime concern of ours.
That attitude I mentioned. I find in the public, everywhere, awe before authority. But individuals forget that they have authority of their own, which should come first.
http://littonsfishinglines.blogspot.com/2017/03/round-valley-reservoir-rvta-trout.html
