When a War Occurs on the other side of the world you never really figure that it would directly affect the lakes where you fish or limit your access to them. With the advent of September 11, and the possiblility of more terrorist attachs we have moved into a new era.

We now have the potential of closures on out reservoirs that we have not experienced in past military conflicts. At present on all reservoirs you are not allowed access to the face of the dams.

This access is not limited to boats. On oroville you can no longer park a vehicle on top of the dam, it is limited to foot traffic only and this might be short lived. Last week in the Oroville paper there was an article stating that total closure to the dam itself was under consideration. This action would result in the loss of the spillway ramp and the new parking facility that was just completed.

The State of California recently closed road access on a section of highway because it was located on top of one of the many dikes that surround Folsom Lake. It only follows that if they feel it is neccessary to protect the top of the dikes, the next move will be to protect them from water access as they have the face of the dams. This could extend to all dikes and would result in the loss of hundreds of miles (Delta) of fishable water.

Shasta, Oroville, New Melones and Pedro all have one or more large bridges that are vital to vehicle and railroad traffic. These facilities would surely become terrorist targets as they are far easier to damage than the dams that created them.

Should there be any attempted reprisals because of the War there is no telling what protectionist measures will be necessary as water is key to our survival. What our BBAC must monitor is where are closures taking place, are they necessary and how long will these closures be needed.

It stands today as it has for thousands of years "Water is for Fight'n and Whiskey is for Drink'n". The world has grown so very close.