ROBERT GREENE
Publicity Chairman
Our awards and banquet night on, February 1, was a sold out house, which is always great to see. The food was plentiful and very good, thanks to our kitchen staff, great job guys and girls. The silent auction was a very good fundraiser. The proceeds are going to improve our clubhouse with some new sinks and other improvements to help make the facility even more people friendly.
As stated in our last newsletter, the annual Alberta Fish and Game Conference was in Ft. McMurray. Our club sent two delegates and their wives to the conference. It was a very interesting place. Dave Abt and myself were in the conference, so did not get to see much of the town but the ladies got to see a lot of the interesting things, thanks to a good ladies’ program.
Here is a brief summary of some of the things that were covered at the conference. There was a discussion about how many grizzly bears there are in Alberta. The present count is that there are at least 2100 grizzly bears in Alberta.
Second thing is that a buyout is being considered for the commercial fisherman. This has been discussed before, but nothing ever became of it.
A big no-no has been the release of some gold fish into the Red Deer river by unknown parties.
Our angler numbers have been dropping for the last few years and are continuing to drop. Access and the condition of some fish stock, in some of our lakes and streams are just some of the causes.
As you know, this has been a rather harsh and snowy winter. These conditions are very hard on our wild life. We will no doubt lose a good many of our deer population and probably some moose and elk.
To the hunters who put in for draws - ESRD is looking into a new way to improve the system for hunters.
Alberta Fish and Game along with all of the Fish and Game clubs and our different corporate sponsors have been buying and leasing habit land for our future generations so that they can enjoy the hunting and fishing and nature as we know it today. At the Conference they always have a parade of donations to help buy the habitat land and this year’s donations were just a few dollars short of $400,000.
Sorry we can't cover everything that went on, but that would take up half of this week’s newspaper.
Our summer events start just as soon as the snow melts. We have a new trap machine to start with this spring. Summer camp will be in July. We are having a Firearms Safety Course on March 23. To register call Beth at 783-4608 or Robert at 783-2256.
We lost one of our members and a great volunteer this past week. We will miss you, Mr. Charles (Skip) Cook. Condolences go to Phyliss Walcheske and to Skip’s daughters and sister and all relatives.