I hope your season is going well; winter came in strong after quite the Indian summer.
It’s Banquet time again. We truly hope most of you will support us again at our annual banquet. Please find the banquet order form in the newsletter or go to the Banquet page on the website. For those of you who help us each year and donate, we hope you will find yourself in a position to help again this year. Please contact Alan at alan.smith@grousecreek.com or Travis at travis.chukar@gmail.com or 801-360-6553.
Some Foundation Highlights from this year include:
- Central Region Guzzler project
- Supporting and volunteering with two youth fairs
- Supporting a new grouse infrared lek study
- Continuing sage grouse and other grouse data collecting projects
- Partnering with a USU forest grouse study
- Volunteering and providing input/feedback on many upland projects in the state
We are a strong voice and partner for upland game and upland sportsmen/women in the state. Your support at our annual banquet provides the necessary funding to support these upland projects on Utah’s public lands. Working as a partner with the UDWR and other agencies we make your money stretch much further than if we tried to do everything on our own. Thanks as always for your support!
This year’s annual banquet will be held at the Sheraton in downtown SLC on Feb. 25. Please sign up early for the banquet to make sure you have a spot. Even with our new location we anticipate filling up and the earlier you sign up the better the deals and the better we can plan accordingly. Sign up for the banquet using the enclosed flyer in your newsletter, or go to our Banquet Page. If you can't attend, but still want to donate, see the information on Darin's raffle for the Chukar mount below.
Travis
This is the 2017 UCWF Commemorative Chukar donated by Darin Gardner. He was harvested by Travis Proctor late last year and Travis was kind enough to give Darin this bird. Darin wanted to do a simple elegant mount to show off this beautiful specimen. And yes, that is a living breathing cactus plant in the foreground! Darin actually mounted this bird last year and competed with him at the Utah Taxidermy Competition and Art Show. This has been his highest scoring bird to date with a 97 out of a possible 100. He won several awards including Masters Best Bird, Taxidermists Choice Best Bird, Best of the West Award, and a gold belt buckle for best bird in the show. Darin says he is probably the best bird he has ever mounted. "It’s going to be hard to give this bird up, but it’s for a good cause. Someone will be taking home a true piece of art and a little chunk of my soul with this piece!"