THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING, Thursday, (first Thurs. of month) February 1, 7:30 PM, AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN THE TOWNSHIP OF GEORGIAN BLUFFS. Fire number 082535

Remember the date!

PROGRAM  February Meeting:
Our guest speaker for the Feb. meeting will be TOM GOESSLER. TOM is a new club member who just happens to be an OLYMPIC CLASS TARGET SHOOTER. Tom will bring some of his gear and pictures and tell us about the competitions he attends. He shoots 22cal. and AIR RIFLE competitions!!! Be sure to bring the youngsters and hear about the ultimate in light calibre competitions. TOM travels all over the world for competitions.

Special Speaker for March:
Dr. Gino Ferri will do a Presentation on Wilderness  Survival

New Members
SSA welcomes new members:
Ben Callaghan-Student,  Michael Fortney-Adult, Bill Clarke-Adult, Mark Brown-Family, 
Paul Brown-Adult, Cameron Jefferson-Adult, Dave Hatcher-Family,
Tom Goessler-Adult,  Erich Dornbusch-Senior,  Jeremiah Johnson-Adult.

PRESIDENTS CORNER

I would once again like to express my appreciation for being re-elected for my third term as your SSA president for 2007. I am looking forward to taking an active part and participating in the many activities and events in the coming year.

On behalf of all the members of the Sydenham Sportsmen’s Association, I would like to thank all the 2006 Officers and Committee Chairs who have worked so hard and diligently to carry our their duties and activities we are all so proud of. Lastly please join me in extending a warm welcome to our newest Directors, Chairpersons, and Coordinators as I know they will bring there unique talents and professionalism to carry out their individual programs at the highest levels.

We truly have one of the premier conservation and outdoor sportsmen’s clubs in Ontario, so lets all work together to continue this great tradition and make 2007 a very enjoyable and productive year.

Submitted by Bill Douglas, President.

2007 Board of Directors

At the January General Meeting held on January 4th, 2007 the following were acclaimed as directors of the Sydenham Sportsmen’s Association for 2007.  Serving the second year of a two year term expiring at the end of 2007 are:  Bill Douglas, Jack Doherty, Fred Geberdt, Blake Smith and  Dennis Wiseman.

 Elected to serve a two year term ending in 2008 from all 2007 nominees were:  Bill Beamish, John Ford, Chris Geberdt, Mike Prevost and Murray Smart. 

The balance of your directors for 2007 who will serve to the end of 2007 are: Terry Christie, Geoff Ford, Bob McKay, John McNamara, Doug Murdoch and Ken Noble.

 The Board of Directors elected/acclaimed the Officers and Committee Chairs at their first Executive Meeting for 2007 on January 18th with a further report of these results to be printed in a future newsletter.  Thank you to all the club members who agreed to stand for election as a director of your association.

Submitted by Murray Smart

2007 Board of Directors and Committee Chairs

• Bill Douglas: President and Archery Co-ordinator 
• Fred Geberdt: 1st Vice President and Co-chairperson Salmon Spectacular, and O.F.A.H. Delegate 
• Not Confirmed at time of printing: 2nd Vice President
• Blake Smith: Past President, Forestry, Wildlife & Wetlands Advisory Committee Co-Chairperson, O.F.A.H. Delegate
• Mike Prevost: Recording Secretary 
• Murray Smart: Treasurer
• Ken Noble: Correspondence Secretary, O.F.A.H. Alternate Delegate and Phone Committee Co-Chair
• Bill Beamish: Director, Shooting Sports Ranges Committee Chair and Shot Gun Sports Co-ordinator
• Terry Christie: Director and Co-chairperson Property Committee
• Jack Doherty: Director
• Geoff Ford: Director and Co-chairperson Salmon Spectacular
• John Ford: Director, Membership Chair, and Fish and Game Contest Co-ordinator
• Chris Geberdt: Director, Fund Raising Chairperson and O.F.A.H Alternate Delegate
• Bob McKay: Director and Handgun Shooting Sports Co-Chairperson
• John McNamara: Director, O.F.A.H. Delegate and Youth Activities Program Co-Chairperson
• Doug Murdoch: Director and Forestry, Wildlife & Wetlands Advisory Committee Co-Chairperson
• Dennis Wiseman: Director and Fisheries Advisory Committee Chair
• Dave Arnold: Gord Maher Memorial Centre - Coordinator (appointed, non director)
• Ken Cowtan: Property Equipment Repair/Maintenance Co-ordinator (appointed, non director
• Dave Hartrick: Gord Maher Memorial Centre - Assistant (appointed, non director)
• Ray Hoffer: Firearms Safety and Hunter Education Examiner/Instructor (appointed, non director)
• Dave Skelton: Newsletter Editor/Chair (appointed, non director)
• Cliff Springer: Club supplies Chairperson (appointed, non director)
• Stew Wallace: Firearms Safety Instructor and Handgun Program Co-Chairperson (appointed, non director)
• Rob Wilson: Co-chairperson Salmon Spectacular (appointed, non director)
• Fish Hatchery Coordinator - Not confirmed at time of printing
• High Power Rifle Range Co-ordinator – Not confirmed at time of printing
• Meetings/Program Co-ordinator - Not confirmed at time of printing
• Social Committee Chairperson - Not confirmed at time of printing
• .22 Rifle Range Co-ordinator – Not confirmed at time of printing
• Clubhouse Bookings: Audrey Smart 519-376-3346
• Clubhouse Custodians: Audrey Smart, June Hartrick

CABELAS-CABELAS-CABELAS-CABELAS-CABELAS

The details for the 2nd CABELAS trip have been finalized.

There appears to be considerable interest in this trip and much of that interest is probably due to the positive feedback following the first trip last March. If you are interested in going then the suggestion is to book your seat early. We cannot guarantee that seats will still be available a week or so before departure.

A 3rd trip in 2008 is uncertain at this time because of the new Passport requirements so don't plan on skipping this one and going next year.

Details:  Cabelas Trip
Individual seats - $125.00 cdn  Couples [don't even ask] - $240.00 cdn
Leave: Owen Sound Revolver Club at 8am on Sat Mar 3rd
Arrive in Dundee by mid afternoon. Check into motel then spend the rest of the day and evening at Cabelas.

Sun morning--continental breakfast at the motel, be at Cabelas when it opens [10am, I think]
Depart: from Cabelas approx 3pm
Return: arriving back in Owen Sound 9:30-10pm Sun Mar 4th.

Yes; you can legally bring back primers, bullets, brass, powder, etc

Rooms are at the same motel as last year [Comfort Inn].

We will endeavour to arrange a side trip on Sunday to a Shopping Mall in the vicinity for the ladies and / or anyone who has seen everything in Cabelas.

The bus driver for last years trip did a magnificent job of getting us  through customs, into the Duty Free store, to our destination and home and to a great restaurant on the trip home. His experience and co-operation were appreciated by everyone  and we have requested to  have that same driver again this year.

Inquire with questions to:  Dave Tebbutt at 986-2731   or    Garry Willis at 376-5347

YOUTH ACTIVITIES PROGRAM

On Feb. 4 we will have our 3rd indoor pellet gun shoot at the clubhouse at 11am, many thanks to Dan Laxton for helping to make this happen again this year!! We are still going ahead with plans for a winter campout on Feb. 17-18, please let me know ASAP if you are able to attend so we can plan properly. We will be touring the club hatchery on Mar. 4th at 11 am with Fred Geberdt, this will take about an hour so I am trying to find out if there is interest in an ice fishing outing as we did last winter on Wilder's Lake near Durham , this would follow the tour of the hatchery and will be dependent on sufficient ice for safety. Any inquiry about events or ideas for future outings please contact John McNamara at 519-369-3269 or email jkmcnamara@persona.ca.

We will be only having one meeting in March as we will be attending the OFAH conference in Toronto.

Annual Conservation Dinner 2007 version

The Conservation Dinner has been organized for March 3, 2007 at the Lumley-Bayshore Community Center in Owen Sound.  Tickets are $45.00 and are available now from Committee Members.  Last year, we had a sell out so buy your tickets early.

O F A H Conservation Lottery Ticket Sales

In 2006, club members sold 300 books of ticket that resulted in $1800 as the club share.  We need you to help by taking a book or two of tickets to sell to your friends.  Please contact John Ford (519-934-0410) if you need tickets.

Awards Presentations in March

Members are reminded that the 2006 Awards will be presented at our March general meeting.
Don’t forget to enter your fish and turkeys at Watson’s Tackle House in Owen Sound.

NATIVE AFFAIRS ADVISORY COMMITTEE

The latest and most startling news regarding Indians is the Supreme Court of Canada ruling that said, in effect, that Indians are free to jacklight deer. When Indians jacklight deer, the courts have ruled, it is alright for them to do so. You or I do it, and we are gone — game over.

First of all, we non—natives must recognize that the Liberals and their king, Pierre Trudeau the First, turned out a constitution that, when combined with activist Supreme Court judges, has ensured equality in Canada is a very bad joke. Inequality has been effectively legislated.

We must remember that hunter ethics, fair sharing and conservation of deer were the original reasons for the jacklighting law. These original reasons vanished in previous Supreme Court decisions relative to Indians. The only thing left to control native jacklighting was safety and now that last safeguard has been consigned to the dustbin. We should be aware that this issue was fought as a safety concern, and one argument in favour of the judges’ ruling is that raccoons are hunted with rifles at night, in spite of any safety concerns.

Question — Oh Canada — whatever happened to thee? Answer — see remarks about Trudeau and activist judges.

Submitted by Blake Smith, Chairman, Native Affairs Advisory Committee

FORESTS, WETLANDS & WILDLIFE

I surmised early in the fall that ruffed grouse were still really scarce. It appears that they showed some signs of recovery during the season and a few hunters did reasonably well. Let’s hope that the increase keeps increasing. If it does, it will be the first good showing in 20 years — grouse missed one expected peak in numbers in the reproductive cycle that should have occurred in the early 1990’s. So let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Trying to bag a flushed ruffed grouse is about as enjoyable as bird-hunting gets. As well, the end product as superb table food is unsurpassed.

BLUEBIRD PROGRAM

Gerry Powers, Lorne Smith and Bob Hunt, along with many assisting volunteers, put in another great year. In the aggregate, they finished out the 2006 nesting season by producing 923 bluebirds and 2184 tree swallows for a total of 3107 birds It is a fact that these 3107 highly desirable birds would not be here without their tremendous efforts and expenditures in time, travel and gasoline.

Lorne had a couple of comments that he would like to share. The bluebird boxes that have the strange extensions on their front doors have brought public hoots, jeers and outright scorn As a matter of fact, these “front porches” on the nest boxes so far appear to have solved a major problem with raccoon predation on the eggs and young.

Approximately 100 bumblebee nests have been set out because...bumblebees are getting scarcer bumblebees and are apparently immune to the mites that are destroying honeybees, and bees are needed to assist with pollination of most of our flowering plant life which, of course, includes fruit trees. As well, bumblebees are the only insects that pollinate red clover.

Gerry Powers and Cindy Cartright banded 154 young bluebirds. This should help with the study of where bluebirds that nest in Grey/Bruce go when they migrate.

WATERFOWL AND WETLANDS

Most of you know Scott Petrie, Research Director of the Long Point Waterfowl and Wetlands Research Fund (LPWWRF). This organization just put out a release of some of their activities which include:

Waterfowl monitoring, which includes aerial surveys of waterfowl on the lower Great Lakes. These surveys, combined with intensive studies at Long Point, provide long—term data on waterfowl population trends, migration and habitat use.

Contaminant Burdens in Scaup, a duck that is declining, Note- Most of us know this highly desirable diving duck as the bluebill, a mainstay of waterfowl hunters on big water.

Scott knows that zebra mussels, which feed by filtering water, concentrate contaminants In turn, scaup eat the contaminated mussels and concentrate the contaminants many, many times over, Scott suspects that concentrated selenium in scaup maybe the culprit in the very noticeable decline of scaup populations. He is further investigating whether or not this interferes with scaup reproduction, as selenium contaminants can be picked up by scaup feeding on the relatively new concentrations of zebra mussel in the lower Great Lakes.

A Satellite Telemetry Study of scaup is a major investigation of scaup movements. Radio transmitters are installed on the ducks in order to track movements, determine location of wintering and breeding grounds and find out time spent by the birds from the lower Great Lakes getting to the breeding grounds.

So far, they have been able to show that northward—migrating scaup use many different -routes and are dispersed all the way from Labrador to Alaska. The eastern movement to Quebec and Labrador was quite unexpected.

Loon Studies will be of interest to fishermen. The LPWWRF is looking at stomach contents of the hundreds of botulism-killed loons on Lake Erie. Among other things, they will determine amounts of fishing tackle and shot in the guts of these birds. Now, this information could have a very direct bearing on certain fishing tackle bans.

Mourning Dove Hunting is being proposed. The LPWWRF has done a study to assess what Ontario residents think about a potential mourning dove hunt in Ontario. It was found that Ontario residents generally view wildlife favourably; most have neutral or favourable views towards hunting and were neutral or favourable towards a dove harvest.

Therefore, the LPWWRF has recommended a mourning dove hunt in Ontario.

The LPWWRF is conducting many other studies, such as mute swans, waste corn available to wildlife, raised nest houses for mallards, vehicle/turtles/snake collisions, phragmites use by wildlife (that is the high grass with the big tufts that grow down by the Owen Sound Grain elevators), tundra swans effects on habitat, mourning dove populations in Southern Ontario… ...and many others.

Scott Petrie and his staff are doing terrific work, and we hope Scott will be able to visit our club as a guest speaker again, this year.

Submitted by Blake Smith, Co-chairman, Forests, Wetlands and Wildlife

Early Bird Membership Draw Winner

Congratulations to Bob Esplen, who won a Smoker as well as a rod and reel. 
Bob had his name drawn at the January meeting.

Disclaimer: The editorial comments in this Newsletter do not always reflect the policies or opinions of the SSA.