THE NEXT GENERAL MEETING, REMEMBER THE DATE: THURSDAY JUNE 1ST 7:30 PM, AT THE CLUB HOUSE, LINCOLN PARK ROAD, IN DERBY TOWNSHIP.

S.S.A. members, Fred Hunt and Dave Tebbutt, will give us an overview of the shooting sports and discuss antique and collectable firearms. There will be hotdogs and a licensed bar, also.

NEW MEMBERS

The S.S.A. welcomes the following new members:

Joe Gray, Senior

Pamela Foulds, Adult

Bob Steffler, Family

Chris Lovell, Family

Joe Augustine, Adult

John Pugelj, Adult

Rolland Meigs, Family

Parker & Jennifer Wallace, Family

Ray Jarvis, Adult

Paul Beattie, Adult

DATES TO REMEMBER!!

Beef Bar B Que, Saturday July 8th

Salmon Spectacular: August 25th to September 3rd

WORK NIGHTS!! EVERY Wednesday Night.
 

YOUTH ACTIVITIES PROGRAM

Some of our Juniors and parent's "Freed Willy" on a beautiful Saturday and a frigid Sunday at the Home Show in April.

Eighteen Juniors and six of our adult members spent a very long day in the Bognor Marsh helping the Bluewater Retriever Club with their Invitational Retriever Trials. We all should be very proud of our young members, they were great ambassadors for our club.

Campout will be held July 15 and 16 at the Clubhouse, Saturday 10am. to Sunday 11am. the cost will be $10 per child. Come join in the fun, adult volunteers are needed.

PLEASE REMEMBER SHOOTING RANGES ARE CLOSED THIS SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We still have plans for Fishing Day, when all the details are finalized we will let you know.

The Henrichs, Co-ordinators; Youth Activities Program

WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE

Most of the wildlife projects are winding down. Planting of wildlife friendly trees and shrubs is pretty well over for the spring season. Planting was done in the Long Swamp, the two Demonstration Wildlife Management areas and the Walker property. The Wildlife Committee extends thanks to all those who contributed so much time and energy to carry out these very worthwhile works.

The best method to conserve the Isaac Lake Bat Colony is still being worked out under the aegis of the Rankin Resource Group. As it stands, the major bat colony at the recently deceased Isaac Lake Fire Station will be annihilated when the old barn is torn down. Our thinking now is to encourage the colony to switch over to the drive shed. The shed is quite decrepit and will require some repair to make it (a) last for a while and (b) be attractive to the bats. One thing for sure, there is a lot of red tape to wade through, before work can get underway. We hope to finish up this coming winter. Lorne Smith and Lloyd Jackson are working with the well known Mammologist, Sandy Dubbyn, to come up with the best solutions.

Gord Fraser is going to need some help, planting wildlife shrubbery on the unused part of the 22 range. This project will kill 2 birds with one stone. Wildlife will benefit and a good chunk of ground will no longer need grass cutting. We're looking at a few more places on our Club property to do the same thing in the future.

Doug Murdoch is doing a really great job of release cutting in the Long Swamp White Pine Plantations. He is freeing up and letting sunlight in to encourage Mountain Ash, Apple, Hawthorne, Buckbrush, Dogwood (sp), Nannyberry, Pear, Cherries (sp), Herbaceous ground cover Etc.. The wildlife will certainly like this.

Indian Fishery

It appears that a 4 year Indian Commercial Fishing Agreement will soon be signed by the Federal Government, the Provincial Government and the Cape Croker and Saugeen Bands, to manage the burgeoning Indian Commercial Fishery, that fronts most of Grey and Bruce Counties.

We are not yet privy to all the details of the agreement, but we have found out enough to believe that our Sports Fishery will be given a reasonable degree of protection from gillnets. We understand that the Agreement sets out commercial quotas by species by Management Areas. We further understand that provisions for Enforcement are part of the package. A really big one for the Sydenham Sportsmen, is the agreement to exclude Commercial Fishing from most of Owen Sound Bay and Colpoy's Bay. (Note: not applicable to gill netting for food or ceremony.) This should answer most of the Conservation, Social and Safety issues regarding these Bays, that your Club representatives have been raising for ten long years. We, (SSA) have been a member of the 20 Club, Grey-Bruce Conservation Coalition for a long time. This Organization was formed to protect the Sport Fishery from uncontrolled gill netting and represented groups from Kincardine to Orillia, from Kitchener to Tobermory. Also, we have worked closely with and been given yeoman support from our M.P.P. Bill Murdoch. We trust that our efforts have been given due consideration in the negotiations between Governments and Indians. We further hope that this Agreement will at least be a start to repairing the Biological and Social damage that has gone on for too long. When more detailed information is given to us, we will pass it on in future issues of the S.S.A. "Sportsman".

Certainly, it will be most welcome, if the time ever comes, to put the strife with our Indian neighbours behind us and free ourselves up for more constructive, agreeable and direct conservation work. Perhaps, the time is ripe for overt efforts to be put forth, to work towards Conservation through combined effort. The Hand of Friendship has been extended to us in an invitation to attend a "Workshop on using the Law to protect the Enviroment" to be held at the Miwikwedong Friendship Centre, 1723 8th Avenue East, Owen Sound. See details on last page of this newsletter.

NOTE! You must preregister to attend this Workshop, see contact persons noted on last page.

I'm going to be there and looking forward to seeing some of you there as well.
 

Blake Smith, Chairperson

Wildlife Advisory Committee
 

Fish Advisory Committee

The Owen Sound Mill Dam fishway was operated from March 27, until April 30. Twelve SSA members were involved in this fisheries project. Two crews were set up. One crew worked the fishway at 9:00 a.m.. The second crew worked the fishway at 5:30 p.m., seven days a week for the duration of the project. These SSA volunteers spent over 800 hours in the completion of this project.

In addition to the operation of the fishway, these same SSA volunteers collected and placed this years rainbow trout eggs into the hatchery. These eggs have now hatched out and minus our dead eggs and dead fry count, we are presently holding 109,000 rainbow trout in our hatchery.

Early in May we stocked the last of our year plus rainbow trout into the Sydenham R. Most of these year old rainbows were anywhere from six to twelve inches in length, and in excellent shape. In total, twenty one thousand of these silvered beauties were released.

We had our fish and fish stocking transfer tank at two shows over the past month. The Trade and Sport show at the Bayshore Arena, and the Trade Show at MacDonnell Shell Fuels. Thanks to the SSA Juniors and SSA adult members who worked to make both of these events a big success.

Our brown trout, (all 93,000 of them), are finally starting to show some marked growth. They sure do take their time in growing up, but once they start, they seem to really move ahead quickly.

In the months ahead, the fisheries committee and SSA volunteers will be continuing on with a number of stream projects and hatchery projects. If any of the SSA members reading this report wish to get involved, please give me a call at 376-2369. Also in closing off this report I'd like to remind everyone that we're still looking for someone in the SSA to take on the job of fisheries chairman. I'm not going away, just want to thin my work load out a bit.

Fred Geberdt, Chairperson; Fish Advisory Committee

Archery Committee

Our Annual "Traditional Weekend" was held this past weekend, while the attendance was down, everybody had a good time and the weather was great.

A very important meeting of all archers will be held at the Clubhouse, Monday June 5th, starting at 7:00 PM.

Plan to attend.

Bill Thompson, Chairperson

Archery Committee

Most of the arrangements have been made for the 2000 version of the Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular. However we need your help to work in one of our many booths. They include the Weigh in Station, Public Relations and Merchandise Booths, Kids Day Crew, the Food Booth, the Beer Tent, Fish Fries, Fish Cleaning, Set up and Take Down as well as Raffle Ticket Draw Sellers. We are in particular need of Day Captains in these areas. The Sign up sheets have been at the last few general meetings and will be at the June meeting as well. Please take a minute to pick your favourite area and sign up. We are asking our workers to sign up for 3 shifts this year to make the Spectacular a success. We have decreased the late hour of the last shift in the food and beer tent to make it more palatable for members who work the next day.

If you are unable to attend the June meeting, please contact John Ford, at 372-0410 to book your spot.

Thanks in advance;

John Ford, Owen Sound Salmon Spectacular Co-Chair