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VOLUME 25 NO. 5 May 2006
Our guest speaker for the May General meeting will be CHRIS HACHEY from the CONSERVATION AUTHORITY. CHRIS is the LAND MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR for our area. He will present an overview of the lands the AUTHORITY looks after and what activities can be done in these areas. It should be an interesting session!. This will be an opportunity to find out where you can take the family for a walk and not worry about trespassing. JUNE MEETING : We will have a live AUCTION SALE to keep you entertained while you enjoy the HOT DOGS. I am asking members to bring an item that they would DONATE to the auction. This is a FUN event !!!! It will only be successful if the members join in. I do not want items that could go to the dump or left over from a previous garage sale. I want you to SACRIFICE something you like but do not use any more! It could be a household item, hunting or fishing items, sports item, anything as long as it is in good condition or EVEN NEW!!!!! This is a club money raiser. If you bring the items to the MAY meeting, I will store them until JUNE. Jack Doherty The SSA Welcomes the following New Members
THINGS TO NOTE!! PITCH IN DAY MAY DAY MAY DAY May 13, 2006 Once again, the SSA is teaming up with Communities in Bloom to clean up our Cities waterways. Communities in Bloom will be focusing on Harrison Park this year. This is a great opportunity to bring our club to the forefront in the city. The kids especially get a big kick out of helping in the cleanup. There will be treats etc., with hotdogs at noon after the clean up. We will be starting this year at Harrison Park at 9 am, where we will pick up garbage bags, and find out what areas are to be done. In total we are hoping for 5 teams for a total of 13 to 18 people. Please come out and support your club. Thanks Brian Clements Social Committee Please mark your Calendar The SSA Social Committee Chair, Carol Barfoot has advised of the following dates for 2006. Thursday June 1, 2006 Hot Dog and Beer Night Sunday June 4, 2006 Annual Beef BarBQ Wednesday August 16, 2006 Corn Boil and Weiner Roast Thursday December 7, 2006 Wild Game Nibble Night Further details relating to each of these events will be provided in future newsletters. Carol Barfoot, Chairperson Garage Sale Two day Garage Sale at the Owen Sound Revolver Club parking lot on Friday May 12 and Sat May 13 th. High traffic volume location and lots of parking. Tables are available to rent for $10 per day or both days for $15. Tarp space at $5 per day. Call 376-5347 to book a table. Hunting-fishing-outdoors and regular garage sale items. THE PRESIDENTS CORNER It ’ s almost May, daylight savings time is here and by the time you read this the Spring Turkey hunting season will be well underway. What a fantastic time of year for everyone, conservationists, fishermen, hunters or all of the above can get back to pursuing their favourite outdoor springtime activities. And speaking of activities, do n o t forget that our Club will be holding the Wal-Mart Bar-B-Que again this year on the long weekend. So please come by and support us on May 19 th, 20 th, and 21 st in the Wal-Mart parking lot. Chris Geberdt is still looking for volunteers to help out at this event, so if you can spare the time just give him a call at 519-238-3636. I would also like to take the time to welcome our new members who joined the club this year. The S.S.A. can be a very rewarding experience and I ’ m urging all new members to get involved in the activities, fellowship and friendship to be found in our association, so please pitch in. The Sydenham Sportsmen ’ s Association is all of us working together to keep our club the top conservation and sporting club in the province. Bill Douglas, President ARCHERY COMMITTEE UPDATE: Spring has arrived and its time to get out to practice and hone those skills with that bow again. We have been through the course and cleaned up after the winter storms and it is all ready to go. We will be replacing a few of the older butts within the next few weeks to get everything up to par for your shooting enjoyment. There are two archery tournaments again this year at the club, which some of you have probably already read about in the O.A.A tournament schedule. 1] The first is on April 30 th /06 at 10 a.m. and is a 3D shoot of two rounds of 20 targets, for all archers and bow classifications. Adults, children and Families welcome. 2] The second is on May 28 th/06 at 10 a.m. and is a Traditional Only shoot of two rounds of 20 targets. This is for Traditional archers only and Adults, children and Families are welcome. Soft drinks, coffee, donuts, & lunches are available at the clubhouse at minimal charge. Hope to see you there. Bill Douglas Archery Chair . S S A Awards Program Resuscitation Last month, we mailed each member a package, which included some information about the Awards Program, along with an entry form for the Big Fish Contest and an entry form for the Big Turkey Contest. To enter a fish, all you need is the measurement of the fork length of the fish (tip of the head to the center of the tail) and the total girth (measurement of the largest distance around the fish). You will also need a witness or a picture of the fish showing the length. The fish can be released and still entered if you so wish. Then the entry form is taken to Watson ’ s Tackle House and put in the box provided. If you need additional entry forms, Drew will have them there for you. The contest is only open to members in good standing of the S S A. In order to make this program successful, we need you to enter your fish. Again, we have trophies for adults, students and juniors for Speckled Trout, Rainbow Trout, Chinook Salmon, Brown Trout, Lake Trout and Perch (juniors only). In a future newsletter, we will give you more detail on each trophy. Since the turkey season opens on April 25, by the time some of you read this newsletter, you may very well have already harvested your first turkey. Hopefully, you entered it in the S S A Big Turkey Contest. The procedure is very simple. Just take your bird to be registered at Watson ’ s Tackle House and tell Drew that you are a S S A member and want to enter your turkey. Give him your entry form. He will do all the calculations and have you sign the form. Then the form goes in the box. Many S S A members turkey hunt and are successful. Please help us by entering your turkey. Dave Hartrick has made an excellent turkey trophy to be awarded for the very first time. Thanks to Dave, for adding new bases to some of the existing trophies as well as making the new trophy. You can help by entering your fish and turkeys in our contest!!! Wrap-up of O F A H Conservation Lottery Tickets If you have n o t returned your sold books of tickets yet, we need them at the meeting as they need to be sent back to Peterborough. The club should realize a profit of $1800 for the Conservation Account, this year, thanks to your efforts in helping both the S S A and the O F A H. NATIVE AFFAIRS M.N.R. COMMERCIAL FISHING ENFORCEMENT PROTOCOL Discussions with an MNR negotiator regarding the native commercial fishing agreement with the Saugeen Ojibway (Cape Croker and Saugeen bands) indicated that there is a gaping hole in the process. It would appear that there has been no priority given to expedite the negotiations for an effective, efficient enforcement protocol. Without such an initiative, the MNR management of a provincial fishery will be severely limited at best and utterly useless at its worst. The following discusses the enforcement protocol as it exists. The MNR stated that there was agreement that the MNR could take unilateral action if there was a violation concerning safety (i.e., unmarked nets set or found that could compromise boater safety). In all other enforcement procedures, a certain enforcement protocol is to be followed. When a violation is encountered, various supervisors will be contacted that will channel information to the band chiefs, who will decide what, if any, actions are to be taken. I expressed concern to the MNR that this enforcement protocol means: no on-lakes checks by the MNR. no checking native-operated fish trucks. no checking of native commercial fishing records. no checking of anything other than non-native fish buyers. In other words, there is no effective enforcement. This approach bears no resemblance to that considered necessary for the regulation of the non-native commercial fishery. Assuming that the commercial fishery laws are biologically based, the present system makes no biological sense. The two approaches would appear to be quite contradictory. If the native enforcement protocol is correct and satisfies the biological requirements, the non-native commercial fishery requires no regulation. If the enforcement approach to the non-native commercial fishery is correct and is biologically necessary, then the native commercial fishery requires the same regulation. The foregoing begs three questions: 1. Does the Sparrow decision give priority rights to the native commercial fishery to take all of the harvest up to the point where conservation would be compromised? If this were so, would this preclude any share for non-natives? 2. If conservation is not to be compromised, is there science, either proved or empirically derived, of sufficient quality to survive court challenges? 3. The Fairgrieve decision did not give priority rights to the native commercial fisherman. Further, Fairgrieve stressed the Ministry's right and duty to manage the fishery. Has the MNR presumed priority rights for natives? Has the MNR, for all intents and purposes, given up its right to manage? Discussions with the MNR staff indicate that there is no priority to arrive at any meaningful enforcement procedure within a reasonable time frame. Further, it is believed that there is no funding for enforcement staff to even meet with and negotiate with natives to even try to work things out. It is recommended that: 1. Enforcement negotiations be funded to work out an efficient, effective enforcement program. 2. The MNR give high priority for the speedy completion of an efficient, effective joint enforcement program. 3. In the event that no enforcement protocol can be achieved, that the MNR recognize and assume its statutory duty to manage the fishery and the actions necessary-to-achieve the same. 4. That concerned non-native citizens be given truthful, complete information on any negotiations, progress and results. 5. The MNR and Saugeen Ojibway thoroughly investigate Michigan's native commercial fishery co-management system, a system that is apparently proving workable and acceptable. Blake Smith . FORESTS & WILDLIFE ADVISORY COMMITTEE A recent March 26th meeting of the SSA Forests & Wildlife Advisory Committee covered quite a few items that may interest our SSA members. SHALLOW LAKE There are several issues still outstanding that must be addressed before any water management plan can be instituted. A major concern is whether any water-control structures around sinkholes might have on local water quality or quantity. In this vein, it will be necessary to have a qualified hydrogeological study done. We have been informed that it will be absolutely essential to have information showing water movement both into and out of Shallow Lake. It will be quite expensive if a consultant has to hire people to get this information. It will save the Sydenham Conservation Foundation a considerable amount of money if this information can be acquired through volunteer efforts. The work itself will require periodic inspections to be made until the water goes out of the lake. We have had a few people sign on, but we need several more. GREY COUNTY TREE-CUTTING BY-LAW Our participation in developing the tree-cutting by-law is almost done. The draft by-law is being presented in open houses to obtain public comment. At the time of preparing this article, there has been only one open house. It is our understanding that the major objection being made by some farmers and loggers is that they have strong disagreement with any inclusion of any requirement for good forestry practices under any circumstances.. This topic, with all its arguments, could fill a book. To make a long story short, we support our forest owners where possible, but our stand should be for good forest stewardship. What we do now will be what we hand down to future generations. GENERAL Our Fish and Wildlife Advisory Committee discussed several jobs that have to be done, such as juniper planting along the clubhouse snake-rail fence, fencing at the Walker property and boundary line running in the Long Swamp. John McNamara's juniors will be doing the snake-rail fence, Doug Murdoch will oversee the Walker fence job and Bill Thompson will be the top-kick and instrument man for the Long Swamp boundary work. The committee discussed many issues, including:
Blake Smith . Chairperson FWAC Fisheries Advisory Committee We are just caring for our brown trout and salmon in the hatchery now as the last of the surviving rainbow trout were released at Harrison Park about a month ago. The salmon appear to be a bit slower in their growth then past years and this may cause a problem in fin clipping. In March Fred Geberdt wrote a letter to the Minister of Natural Resources asking that they consider not clipping and mark the salmon with the chemical oxytetracycline. The minister wrote back that this was not their policy but they would minimize the clipping by removing only the adipose fin. An experienced contractor has been found by the M.N.R and will be around to our hatchery at a later date. After our run off problems in March Coy Currie made a few phone calls and it was not long before we had the Mayor of West Grey, the roads superintendent and engineers out to assess the problem and make some recommendations. This also gave them the opportunity to view our hatchery which they had never seen before and they were impressed with our system which added to their interest in helping us. They quickly made repairs to a wooden retaining fence and put up some filter cloth at the entrance of a drainage ditch. April will see us starting to collect rainbow eggs at the Mill dam. So far most of the females have not been ripe and with the river water lowered for spring flooding there has not been that incentive for the fish to make a big push up the ladder. Hopefully things will pick up soon as most of our few volunteers are also keen turkey hunters and things can get very tiresome. Mike Prevost F.A.C. Chairman FOR SALE: 16 Foot Ward Fibreglass canoe, Life Jacket and Paddles. Camp Trails Internal Frame Pack and External Frame Pack (Ladies size) Call Bill at 376 4555 Restarting our S S A Awards Program Many of you, particularly if you are fairly new S S A members, are probably unaware that we have an Awards Program. Jack Doherty, Brian Clements are myself have volunteered to try to activate this once important activity. Some members will remember our Awards Banquets, the last was held in 2004 for the year 2003. The awards are in a number of different categories. We plan to promote these each month, both in the newsletter and at the club meetings. First, we have a Big Fish Contest comprised of three categories. The Junior category is up and including age 12 while the Student category includes ages 13 to 16. Our Adult category starts at age 17 and goes up. Within each category we have trophies, which we plan to display at the May general meeting, for Rainbow Trout, Chinook Salmon, Brook (Speckled Trout), Bass, Lake Trout and Brown Trout. There is a special Perch Trophy for Juniors only. The fish are not weighed. All you need to do is to measure the fork length and girth. You will need a witness to verify the measurement or a picture showing the fish beside a tape to verify its length. If you choose to release the fish after measuring it, that is your option. We will provide fish contest entry forms in this newsletter (which we ask you to save), have a number at the club house on the bulletin board and have a number at Watson’s Tackle House where you will deposit the completed entries in our box. For 2005 we only have one fish entry, let’s all change this for 2006. A second component of our awards is the Big Turkey Contest. If you are a successful turkey hunter, you are aware that your bird must be registered. It happens that Watson’s Tackle House is a check station. Drew Watson will weigh your bird, measure the beard and spur and calculate a score. This score goes on the entry form, along with other pertinent information provided by you, and the information is verified by Drew. Dave Hartrick is building the trophy as you read this. You must tell Drew when you bring in your bird that you are a S S A member and want to enter it in our Turkey contest. Again the completed entry form goes in our Box. Another component of the Awards program is the Best Buck Contest. We will provide these entry forms in a future newsletter closer to the deer season and make them available at the clubhouse and at Watson’s Tackle House as well. You bring in your rack to Drew, who will measure it and provide a score to go on the Entry form. The completed form is placed in our Box. Other important awards include Handgun, Archery as well as Conservationist of the Year in Junior and Adult areas and High 5 Awards in the Student area. With your help, we can have many recipients for 2006 presented in 2007. We hope to present the 2005 awards at the June general meeting this year. Next month, we will provide a listing of the different trophies within each category. Thanks in advance for your help; John Ford, Jack Doherty, Brian Clements |
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© 2001, Sydenham Sportsmen's Association |