Great article by Dave Dahlgen from Utah State University about our efforts on Parker Mountain to gather Sage Grouse Data using bird dogs.
Information & Events
President’s Message Summer 2017
Greetings,
I hope your summer is going well, fall will be here soon.
Now is the time to put in for the limited entry upland permits, go to the UDWR website for more information. Thanks to those who helped with Outdoor Adventure Days and recent guzzler installs! We will be participating in another youth/family Utah Youth Waterfowl Fair and Outdoor Festival on Sept. 9, at the Farmington Bay WMA (http://www.utahwaterfowlfair.com/). This is a great youth event for you to attend, or contact Alan at alan.smith@grousecreek.com if you can volunteer to help.
We have seen chukar chicks in the desert during our guzzler installations and we hope they are faring well despite the dry weather. Our annual sage grouse count summer activity is coming up on July 28-29. We hope to see many of you there, look for additional information in this issue and via email. We have more guzzler installations that will take place later this summer and fall, look for emails with dates and contact information.
Enjoy the rest of Summer!
Volunteer Opportunities
Greetings:
We have a lot of volunteer opportunities right now. See below for explanations of activities, contact information and some great events for kids and families to enjoy.
Guzzler installation checks. With the movement of some BLM folks we have some guzzlers that were installed, but we don’t know which 14 of about 25 sites had guzzlers installed and which still need to be installed. We need some volunteers who can take an ATV to GPS locations then determine if a guzzler is installed at that location, or if it still needs to be installed. These sites are near Delta. Contact Travis Proctor to help asap at travis.chukar@gmail.com or 801.360.6553
Outdoor Adventure Days on June 9-10th. http://oad.utah.gov/ We will have booth at this free event for youth and families. We can use help at the booth. This is a great volunteer event where you can bring your dog and talk with other hunters and trainers as you demonstrate to participants the hunting and training process. Puppies are welcome also. Contact Alan Smith to volunteer alan.smith@grousecreek.com and/or bring your family and friends to enjoy the events.
Guzzler installs southeastern region. The DWR is planning a volunteer day on Saturday, June 3rd to build chukar guzzlers near Huntington, Utah. We are currently planning on installing one guzzler that day, but could have crews at four different guzzlers if we have enough volunteer help. We will be meeting at BK’s (Sinclair) in Huntington at 8:00 a.m. that day. Contact Makeda makedatrujillo@utah.gov to help
Guzzler installs central region. We are ready to install two guzzlers in the Central Region. DeWayne will coordinate the installs at a TBD date (during the next month). Contact DeWayne if you are interested in helping erdmande@uvu.edu
Youth Outdoors Fair in Ogden June 17th https://sk.eventbu.com/ogden/2017-youth-outdoors-fair/1483466 We are looking for a volunteer to man a booth for the foundation at this event (9-12:00), or take your family to enjoy the activities. Contact Alan Smith to volunteer alan.smith@grousecreek.com
We are excited about these and other projects this summer. We will be installing more guzzlers later this summer and there will be another youth fair on September 9th at Farmington Bay http://www.utahwaterfowlfair.com/
Thanks for your support and help,
Travis
Willard Bay Cleanup Day
Dog trainer friends,
Yes! It’s that joyous time of year again! Saturday April 29 Is our spring clean up out at The Willard public dog training area. We would like to meet that morning at 7:00. Please spread the word amongst your members. The good news is that it looks as though our efforts have started to pay off. I believe there is less to do than there has been in the past. Someone did leave us a nice Television set, and there is a couple of dead cows but other than that it shouldn’t be too bad. The DWR might have us mark any remaining cactus for treatment this year along with the clean up. It looks like we have made a really solid dent in the cactus in recent years. It shouldn’t take much to finish it off.
There is some fencing down by the training ponds. We might go ahead and repair that if we have time. If not Rich and Colton said they could get it at another time.
Most of us have done this before, and know what you are doing. So bring the work gloves, and any fencing tools you might have. The DWR will provide bags the trailer for hauling garbage, and most everything else that is needed.
Shout with any questions, and we will look forward to seeing you at 7:00 on April 29th!
Thanks for all you do,
Bret Wonnacott
Presidents Message – Spring 2017
Greetings:
Much thanks to all who attended our banquet and supported us this year. Please shop our sponsors first. We had our most successful banquet to date netting just over $29K. Hopefully you received a newsletter recently if you attended the banquet, or paid your yearly dues. If not, please email me your address.
This email list and our Facebook page will keep you up-to-date on current events. We will gladly add anyone to our email list, if they request it.
We will have a board meeting on April 11th at Scheels (11282 State St, Sandy, UT 84070) from 6:30-8:30, second floor NW corner. Many of us eat from 6:00-6:30 in the diner before the meeting. All are welcome to attend. We welcome member input and your vote regarding the board. At this meeting, we will report on projects from last year and have a guest from the habitat council discuss upland habitat projects. Additionally, we will establish the board for the year, make goals, and present new projects for funding.
Thanks again, we look forward to another great year!
Travis
2017 Annual Banquet & Fundraiser
Greetings,
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