Holiday Party Information
The OPTU Holiday Party will be held at Rob Gillette's and
Carol Swanson's home on Friday evening, December 7
th
,
starting at 6:30 pm. The party will include dinner, trivia
contest, casting contest, raffle, and live auctions. OPTU
will provide non-alcoholic beverages; other beverages are
BYO. The casting contest will be to a target in the
swimming pool with everyone using Rob's 4 wt rod.
Practice casting will be permitted before the target is
placed. Trivia contest details are being worked out. Rob
and Carol's home is located at 4310 N. Placita de Susana,
Tucson within the Bellas Catalinas subdivision. From River
Road, go north on Alvernon Way one-half mile and turn
left into the Bellas Catalinas subdivision. Proceed through
the gate (code 8399), make the first left on to Placita de
Susana, and our house is the second on the left. RSVP's
are requested prior to December 1
st
. Call Rob at 615-8141
(hm) or 298-0203 (wk).
Enjoying Pena Blanca after a stocking in Winter
CONSERVATION
Grassroots Activist Network
At the center of TU’s efforts to raise the profile of coldwater
conservation is the Grassroots Activist Network – TU
members who have volunteered to contact their members of
Congress, Governors, members of state legislatures and natural
resource agencies on issues of importance to trout and salmon.
Grassroots Activists receive brief summaries or
Action Alerts
of
issues pending before government decision-makers that could
harm or help coldwater fisheries, and guidance on how to be an
effective voice for trout and salmon.
As we work to protect fish and their waters, we need your
support and involvement to carry the conservationist message.
To join the Grassroots Activist Network, please send an email
containing your mailing address
to
grassrootsactivist@tu.org
Joe Fagan needs volunteers for Sport Fishing
Programs!
OPTU member, Joe Fagan, has recently been awarded the
contract of
Sport Fishing Educator
for the Arizona Game
and Fish Department
. He is in need of a cadre of
volunteers to assist him with various Fishing Programs in
Tucson and other towns in southern Arizona. E-mail Joe (
JFaganFishEd@Gmail.com
), call him on his cell phone
(520-730-6398), or speak to him at OPTU meetings. He
can provide you with a volunteer packet to complete. The
AZGFD office on Greasewood Road (across from Pima
Community College) can do your fingerprints, essential for
certified volunteers. The completed form and fingerprints
are sent to the AZGFD main offices in Phoenix. Then,
calendars of Fishing Program events will be mailed to you.
Joe can inform you of programs he’ll be doing any time.
State Report from AZTU
We are continuing our Trout in the Classroom Project
at Sahaurita Middle School. There are 8 dedicated
students in a class of 25 who are doing water quality
studies and keeping the tank in shape in preparation of
the eggs which should be here any day now.
Be proud OPTU! We were voted by the Arizona Fish
and Game Commissioners an Award of Excellence. A
banquet held by AZGFD will be held in January with
awards handed out.
AZTU is in talks with the US Forest Service Planning
committee to help come up with new Five Year Forest
plans and Transportation Plans throughout all six Forests
in Arizona. Brad Powell, full time TU employee and
member of AZTU is heading the efforts. We are working
for your best interests in streams and lakes throughout the
Arizona forests system.
This coming year, 2008, will bring workdays throughout
the state on Apache Trout temperature monitoring, Gila
Trout Blue River watershed temperature monitoring; this
area of work has been reduced due to drought, fire, and a
washout in Chitty Creek. We will also have work in the
Pinaleno's (Mt. Graham) restoring pure populations of
Apache and Gila Trout. We're also hoping to get contacts
in Mexico to obtain Yaqui Trout for the Chiracahau's.
3
There is a group of TU National people to come to
Tucson in December to work on mapping Apache Trout
waters in a GIS system in which TU National is mapping all
Native Trout throughout the country. You will be able to
access Google Earth to find out the streams the Natives
are thriving in. Most TUers that I have met are trying to
catch each species; this mapping will be very valuable for
that.
