THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING, REMEMBER THE DATE: THURSDAY DECEMBER  4TH, 7:30 PM,  AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN DERBY TOWNSHIP.

The annual Nibble Night competition will be the highlight of our December meeting. Once again an International Chef from Grovenor's Restaurant  in Southampton will be on hand to taste and choose the most palatable dishes from  among all of those entered. Bring a sample of  your favourite recipe and try to win an award. The rest of us get to match our taste buds against a professional chef's by sampling the recipes after the winners are announced. There are no restrictions or categories but fish and game, caught or shot by members will be looked upon with favour.

Refreshing, palate clearing drinks will be available at the bar. Members and their guests are welcome. There will be draw prizes as usual plus an opportunity to voice queries and complaints to local conservation officer, Scott Wilson.

New Members

The following new members have joined the S S A
 

Steve Klerks, Student  Bearach Mole, Adult Barry Mole & Dot Clayton, Family

Wayne Thompson, Adult  Carl Eno, Adult Kevin Brodrecht, Adult

John Ireton, Student Jeremey Cline, Adult  Marlo Bailey, Adult

The members of the Sydenham Sportsmen are invited to nominate fellow members or themselves for the 2004 SSA Board of Directors.  Nominations will be accepted at the December and January General Meetings.  If you are unable to attend either of these meetings and wish to let your name stand for election, please provide written authorization to a club member to present on your behalf. 

An election will take place during the January 8, 2004 meeting with the top five vote recipients to serve for a two year term.  Please consider providing your volunteer time to assist in the management of your club. 

Mark your calendar for 2004 SSA General Meetings

The calendar has been proposed for the 2004 General Meetings of the SSA subject to weather and the new executive.  Please mark these dates on your personal calendar and plan to attend.  January 8, 2004 is our first general meeting of the new year (due to the holiday on January 1st) with the Election of Directors. February 5th, March 4th, April 1st, May 6th, and June 3rd round out the first part of the year. We take a break from meetings for the summer months but not other club activities.  Be sure to check the newsletter and talk to your fellow members on how you can participate in our many activities.  We commence our fall meeting schedule on Sept 9th (moved one week due to fishing derby) followed by meetings in October on the 7th and November 11th (changed for the benefit of the fall deer hunt participants).  2004 General Meetings round out with our Annual Nibble Night on December 2nd.  All meetings are scheduled for the SSA  Clubhouse starting at 7:30 PM.  Please join your fellow members and guests in fellowship and informative guest speakers. 

THE PRESIDENT'S CORNER

The days are short, the shadows long, the trees are bare and cold, sere days herald the approach of our northern winter's ice and snow.

Our homes are heated, we have warm clothing and our freezers and jars are full of nature's bounty. Let the winter howl and blow! We are Canadians, and this is our annual challenge...a challenge that we meet with gusto, curses and great perseverance.

It is a time when our coyote houndsmen and rabbit hunters are in their glory. Our hard water fishermen once more come into their own, and squat on their ice holes in blue-fingered happiness.

It is a time to plan our activities for the coming year...time to devise projects that will honour our "save and faithfully defend" pledge...activities that maintain our club leadership in effective conservation. A time to help out our wild creatures that, without benefit of furnaces or supermarkets, struggle to survive till spring. Our help can and does make a difference.

It is a time for many of us to meet in our snug, warm clubhouse, and enjoy the friendship surrounding our gathering together with the greatest people on earth, our fellow sportsmen.

So to all, a Merry Christmas and a prosperous, healthy and happy New Year.

We have decided to honour the efforts of some of our Club Members who contribute time ,money or effort and do so rather anonymously.

In this edition, we salute Lorne Fletcher who has been a staunch supporter of the S.S.A. 

Lorne is 74, grew up on the Hamilton mountain, and has been hunting and fishing since a very tender age. He tells us that the current fishing "hot spots" are at Meaford and the mouth of Bothwell's Creek.

Lorne owns and operates Fletcher's Sports, located at Hwy. #6 and Ledgerock Road. He is a really good supporter of the Sydenham Sportsmen, and shows this support by tremendous deals and outright donations of sporting equipment to our club draw prize program.

FORESTS & WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The November 19th turkey meeting in Markdale with a select group of farmers, which was sponsored by the Grey County Stewardship Council, the Ontario Soil & Crop Improvement Association, the Sydenham Conservation Foundation and the Sydenham Sportsmen's 

Association, produced mixed results. Dave Reid, MNR's Norfolk County Forestry Stewardship Co-Ordinator, who is also a wild turkey hunter, as well as being extremely well-versed in turkey biology, gave an excellent talk on the wild turkey program.

Andy McKee, MNR's Grey County biologist, gave us the information on turkey depredation of farm crops that he had garnered from a literature review and personal observation, as well as from talking to his American counterparts. Andy pointed out that, although turkeys do cause crop damage, many investigations of incidents purported to be turkey depredation, turned out to be caused by other animals such as raccoon, deer and squirrels.

Andy pointed out that most turkeys are in the poult stage in late spring and summer, and as such, their high protein growth requirements necessitate a mainly insect diet. This is instead of the farm crop damage of which they are so often accused. Surely, at this time of the year, this would make them beneficial birds. 

McKee acknowledged that there are certainly bona fide cases of turkey damage, not the least of which is turkeys destroying baled grains. He outlined several methods to discourage turkeys, including: fall hunts, shooting at specific problem flocks, propane cannons, pyrotechnic devices, flapping mylar tapes, prowler owls, ultrasonic calls, exclusion fencing, lure crops, strategic manure spreading and many more.

Dave and Andy put on a pretty good program. The farmer reaction was not what we had hoped for. First of all, the meeting lost its focus on turkeys, and instead brought up all the old grievances against all problem wildlife...deer, coons, foxes, coyotes, squirrels, geese...you name it. At times, the meeting was more of a general bitch session than it was of searching for solutions. In spite of Andy's presentation, of defensive techniques, at least some of the farmers were not interested. They wanted compensation...money! They were not interested in participating in expensive, time-consuming defensive measures. This is understandable, but creates its own difficulties.

Some farmers did concentrate on turkey damage, and did want turkey numbers reduced. Many of the farmer attendees were silent...who knows what they were thinking. In southern Ontario, much of our hunting is done on private lands, and is strictly at the sufferance of the landowners. This means that we have to get along with the farmers, and that solutions are required.

Dave Reid pointed out that the spring hunt for gobblers only did not provide any population control on turkeys. A fall hunt, if justified by a very high turkey population, might be used for overall control.

Some farmers pointed out that the cost of crop damage by wildlife should not be borne by the farm community, with the chief beneficiaries of the wildlife being urbanite hunters. The farmers said that they should be compensated. This was the main theme. A warning was given that we may be headed for the European system of "pay for hunt" if nuisance wildlife continued to be an uncompensated expense to farmers. They threatened that only the wealthy might  hunt.

At the end of the meeting, Gertie Blake asked the group for comments on the MNR presentation. The responses included, but were not limited to:

1. Good information presented.
2. Liked the fact of poults eating insects.
3. Ministry not solving wildlife depredation problems.
4. There is no overall control "of wildlife damage to farm crops.
5. There is no overall compensation plan for wildlife damage to farm crops.
6. There are too many turkeys, and numbers need to be controlled.
7. How many turkeys must there be to warrant a fall hunt?
8. Coyote predation compensation procedures are too difficult for farmers.
9. Farmers should be favoured with extra doe tags.
10. We need a spring hunt for geese.
11. Do hunters generally need to shoot more does?
12. When will government do something?
13. Will there be a controlled deer hunt that would ensure farmers of getting doe tags?
14. Will there be compensation for wildlife damage?

We sportsmen were tempted to point out that hunters are one of the chief wildlife management controls of excessive or nuisance wildlife. However, we did not feel that this was the proper time to bring this out, considering the non-effective spring turkey hunting on turkey populations.

To illustrate just how much pressure for compensation is coming from the farming community, see the attached OFA commentary #4703.

Blake Smith.
Co chairperson
Forest and Wildlife Advisory Committee

Gertie Blake
From: ofa@ofa.on.ca on behalf of Gary Struthers [gary.struthers@ofa.on.ca]
Sent: Wednesday, November 19,200310:42 AM
To: gary.struthers@ofa.on.ca

Subject: [Msr] OFA Commentary 4703 Wildlife predation on farms
OFA Commentary #4703

Wildlife damage serious
By Ron Bonnett, President, Ontario Federation of Agriculture

Ontario farmers continue to suffer serious losses to their crops and livestock as a result of wildlife predation, and the Ontario Federation of Agriculture wants the new government to get serious about correcting the situation.

We had a meeting with the previous ministers of natural resources and agriculture and food where we outlined the problems, and made a number of recommendations to reduce or eliminate the problem. There has been no formal response to our requests.

Now we have a former minister of agriculture and food, and a one-time farmer in Northeastern Ontario -David Ram say -as the new minister of Natural Resources. We are calling on him to address the issues farmers face with wildlife.

When we get calls from farmers with crop losses in excess of $20,000 per farm, OFA knows there is urgency to finding resolution to this problem.
The damage to crops covers a broad spectrum -everything from alfalfa to apples, beans to barley, and a variety of livestock and fowl.

Government policies are interpreted in different ways in different parts of the province. In some areas, local MNR staff appear to cooperate with farmers while in others a confrontational relationship exists. Failure to address the issue of wildlife density not only impacts on farms, it is now becoming a highway safety issue.

While most farmers appreciate nature and are conservation minded, they shouldn't be expected to feed this growing population of nuisance animals and birds. These creatures threaten the farmer's ability to farm and realize a profit to care for the farm family .

Some crop and animal losses caused by wildlife are eligible for government compensation, but in most instances the values shown in the legislation are outdated, and the listing of predators has become incomplete.

OFA has called on government to make the Ministry of Natural Resources responsible for funding wildlife damage compensation, moving it out of the ministry of agriculture and food budget. We want the act revised to cover damage caused by predatory birds such as ravens, crows, owls, hawks and eagles, and mammalian predators such as racoons, fishers, foxes and weasels.

The list of eligible livestock must be expanded to include some non-traditional species of livestock now found on modern farms -deer, ostrich, emu and elk are examples. In all cases, the payment schedule needs to be updated to reflect current market values.

As the job of the livestock valuer becomes more complex, the training offered by the ministry of agriculture and food must be upgraded. It is important that consistent evaluation of livestock losses be provided across the province.

Crop insurance appraisers are best qualified to place values on wildlife damage to crops. OFA is asking the  province to have these appraisers trained to assess spot losses caused by wildlife. We believe the ministry of natural resources should fund a compensation program for losses to standing crops, orchards, and stored forages.

In the hope of reducing losses caused by wildlife in Ontario, OFA is asking that there be no further wildlife reintroduction's without a full economic and risk assessment, including a disease transfer assessment. We are also calling for an end to wildlife introduction projects until all outstanding wildlife damage compensation issues are satisfactorily resolved.
11/19/2003

YAP Newsletter

Mark December 21st on your calendar.  We are having a Christmas party at the clubhouse at 1:30 PM.  We will start with a meeting and follow with games, prizes and Christmas treats.  All are welcome.  This is your opportunity to find out what we have in store for next year and we welcome new members and new ideas.

Also be sure to save the weekend of February 14 and 15, 2004 for our annual winter campout.  More details to follow.

We also need to pick six of our worthy youth members to attend the Get Outdoors Conference in Toronto in February.  Details will be discussed at the December meeting.

And for all who would like information about the Youth Activities Program please call Sarah Stephenson at 363-9845 or Mary Stephenson at 363-2893.  Happy Holidays!

Sarah Stephenson, Chairperson
Youth Activities Program

FISHERIES ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Our hatchery will be receiving 100,000 brown trout eggs from the M.N.R. Normandale hatchery in early December as per our request and ..,as reduced a little in relation to the decrease in the projected forage base available in the Great Lakes.

Our salmon eggs are hatching later this year due to the timing of our collection but are looking good. Coy was able to get one new helper for the hatchery from our last request for help so if there is anyone else out there please give Coy a call at 376-2942.

Interesting excerpt from a book describing ice fishing for a living in Lake Michigan during  the depression.

"The best fishing was on reefs in 100 to 158 feet of water. They used linen lines ,tarring them and taking the stretch out until they were almost as hard as wire. The bait was cut herring and the lines were so stiff that a trout bumping the lure could be felt at 158 ft. And because there was no stretch in the linen the hook could also be set at that depth with one sharp yank.

Then the fisherman would wheel around, throw the line over one shoulder and go sprinting across the ice until the trout was flopping beside the hole behind him. That was the quickest and surest way of landing fish."

If you have any interesting anecdotes or tips you would like to pass on to our membership please mail them to me at 588 1st. St. WEST Owen Sound N4K 5Y3.

Mike Prevost
F.A.C.Chairman