By Robert Greene
Ponoka Fish and Game Association
Another year is fast slipping away. It has been a very busy one for our club, with improvements, rentals and our annual events. We had an archery shoot, kids camp for two weeks then our rifleman’s rodeo on Labour Day weekend. We also work 24 bingos a year and also had a casino between these events. We have had 10 firearms courses so far and requests for three more. At the present time, our next course is Oct. 17 and 18.
Just a reminder to all hunters, in order to be eligible for trophies you had to have a membership by Aug. 25, that is when hunting season starts here. Our horn measuring night will be the first Monday night in December. We have a great sponsor for this event and there will be lots of prizes, also a raffle and lots of hunting equipment for sale. Don’t miss this fun night.
Our membership is over the four hundred mark and still climbing, come join in the fun and help out with one of the most important things of all, conservation of our great outdoors and the fish and wildlife we all enjoy. It takes all walks of life to accomplish this task. So join hands and help out any way you can to preserve a wonderful way of life for our future generations.
Let’s go back a few years and see what you remember. Do you recall when the roads were so bad it took you two days to get to Buck Lake or even longer to get to the mountains for a hunting trip? There was still plenty of forest between here and the mountains in those days. Look around you now, what do you see, I believe it is called “progress”. Even though traveling has become much easier then in the old days, it was sure nice to have all the forest and lakes with lots of game and fish.
I can remember where I grew up there were forests of hard wood that had never been cut. Hickory, Beach, Oak, Chestnut and many more species of trees, also wild berries and grapes and black walnuts grew wild all through the hills of Tennessee. Where I came from, as a boy, I spent many happy days hunting and fishing the many thousands of acres that were available where we used to work and play. These have now all gone by the wayside. The timber has been cut to make way for other things. What is in store for our children and grandchildren if we do not help preserve some of these things for the future? Food for thought, huh?
We wish you a successful hunting season and it won’t be long until ice fishing.
By the way, I almost forgot, we are not having a turkey shoot this year due to the decline of shooters the past few years, this event is no longer feasible. If you have horns to measure this year, bring them to the horn measuring night the first Monday night of December. This will be at our clubhouse. We will have a minimum of 10 qualified measurers on hand so we can handle lots of horns.