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Committed to
Protecting, Connecting and Restoring Arizona's watersheds and fisheries.
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"The true angler can welcome even a low river and a dry year, and learn of it, and be the better for it, in mind and in spirit."
~ G.M.W. Wemyss
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Message From The President |
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Happy New Year!
Welcome to the Zane Grey Chapter January 2022 newsletter. We hope you are enjoying the almost return to normal holiday season, and had an opportunity to spend time with friends and family.
We are certainly blessed in Arizona; we can fish year-round. And, if Santa brought you new fishing gear you are dying to try, there are plenty of opportunities. There are plenty of opportunities in the usual summer haunts, a bit chilly in the morning, but still plenty of opportunities. While the mountain creeks may be chilly and low, there are still many opportunities for fishing here in the valley. One opportunity is mid-month on Saturday, January 15, 2022, where we will again co-host a Salt River Saturday event with Arizona Flycasters Club. More information is below and here.
In spite of the pandemic, or maybe because of it, we’ve had a busy year: we had a number of activities, and here is a sample of the things we accomplished.
- Co-hosted eight Salt River Saturdays and trash clean-ups
- Held a virtual meeting describing the rise of the Apache Trout
- Kicked off our photo contest
- Helped Arizona Game and Fish Department, USFS Tonto National Forest improve in-stream fish habitat in a portion of the Upper East Verde River.
- Held a Virtual planning session with board and members; we’ve implemented some of the ideas and are working on others.
- Had a table at the AZ Fly Shop Grand opening (and received a $1500 donation for fish camp)
- Hosted a Kids fishing day with the Kiwanis Club of Phoenix and a South Phoenix Boys & Girls Club.
- As part of the AZTU Council team, held two-weeks of fish camp at Camp R-C near Payson with 20 campers and 15-volunteers. Thanks again to the volunteers!
- Conducted a one-day introduction to fly-fishing to 200+ Madison Meadows Middle School students
- Hosted a Kids fishing day with the Kiwanis Club of Phoenix and a South Phoenix Boys & Girls Club.
Scroll to the Public Policy section to see the 2021 Public Policy Committee accomplishments.
Next month we announce a series of conservation work projects. Watch for the announcements, with the specific times and dates.
The Arizona Trout In the Classroom (TIC) program held its 2021-22 School year introduction earlier this month. Unfortunately, the eggs delivery and some aquarium equipment are experiencing the all too familiar supply chain issues and delays. The eggs are now scheduled for arrival during the first week of February. More about TIC later in the newsletter.
No Board meeting in January. We're holding a planning meeting instead.
But! Please join us for our monthly meeting:
Look for our February board meeting announcement.
Until then,
Tight Lines.
Alan Davis
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Help Wanted Needed!
Tired of doing crossword puzzles and 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzles? Then consider volunteering for a position with your chapter board. We currently are looking for a STREAM Keeper leader, and a board member at-large. If interested, contact any board member, or me.
Here are some of the articles in this month's Newsletter.
- Your Zane Grey Chapter of TU has a great Instagram! Follow us here!
- Arizona TU (@trout_unlimited_arizona)
- Volunteer Opportunities and Updates:
- City of Chandler Family Fishing Clinic
- National Leadership Council
- Background and Discussion
- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
- Public Policy
- Legislative Update by Nate Rees
- Priority Waters, Upcoming Events
- Meeting Day Change for the PPC
- Fly Girls Women's Initiative:
- Virtual (ZOOM) Book Club: 52 Rivers: A Woman's Fly Fishing Journey
- Education: Trout in the Classroom - Updates
- Fishing: Salt River Saturday Info and Silver Creek Youth Angler Update
- Other Angling organizations
- ZGTU and affiliates calendar
- Follow ZGTU on Social Media
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I want to help folks fish!
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LOCATION
Veterans Oasis Park -- 4050 E Chandler Heights Rd., Chandler 85249
DATE AND TIME
02/12/22 7:30am
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02/12/22 12:00pm
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Casting Instructors Needed!
Trout Unlimited is helping the City of Chandler put on a family friendly (spin) fishing clinic on Saturday, February 12 at Veterans Oasis Park. We need a dozen volunteers to meet at 7:30 AM at a tent next to the lake and answer participants' questions, hand out rods, and other fishing supplies and help them on the water if requested.
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What the heck is the National Leadership Council? |
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There is a plaque marking the birthplace of Trout Unlimited on the Au Sable River in Michigan. It states in part: “Trout Unlimited is a national conservation organization dedicated to the preservation of trout and their environment and the perpetuation of the fine sport of trout angling.” Since 1959 the mission and vision of TU has focused on protecting, conserving, restoring and sustaining trout and salmon watersheds. The early reference to trout angling is sometimes forgotten but remains the “hook” that often brings in new members and keeps all of us in touch with the resources we work hard to protect.
Today, TU has grown in both membership and staff which has greatly improved our capacity to accomplish effective conservation work. Many new members now join TU because of our conservation activities, and good communication between the grassroots members and TU national is vital.
So, sit back and read the story of how the NLC has evolved to strengthen your TU organization.
Originally the Board of Trustees of TU consisted of 100 grassroots members. But to carry out TU’s mission more effectively, the National Resource Board (NRB) was established as the connection between the members and national TU. After ten years, and continued growth of the TU organization, the TU leadership believed that there might be a better way to have the grassroots members involved.
In 2001 the TU bylaws proposed changing the role of this new leadership group, now called The National Leadership Council (NLC) to:
- Develop and amend, as needed, TU’s National Conservation Agenda (NCA) and prioritize issues
- Implement the NCA at all levels of TU
- Work on improving and increasing the organizational capacity of TU
During this transition to the NLC, ten Grassroots Trustees were added to the existing group of At-Large Trustees on the Board of Trustees. Two of the new Grassroots Trustees positions were filled by the officers of the NLC – the NLC Chair (Zane Grey’s own Jim Walker!) and NLC Secretary. In addition to serving as NLC officers and Grassroots Trustees, these officers sit on the Executive Committee and serve roles in leadership of the NLC. Each state council selects an NLC member to represent them at the national level of TU. This individual is responsible to communicate information about national activities and policies back to their constituents and carry important information, concerns, opportunities, or general feedback from their state up to national. (Hence, this newsletter article!)
Two types of NLC Workgroups were established to address those goals: conservation and organizational.
CONSERVATION WORKGROUPS:
Access
Climate Change
Delaware River
Driftless Area Restoration Effort
Great Lakes
Land Conservancy
Mining
Native Trout
Responsible Energy
Tailwaters
ORGANIZATIONAL WORKGROUPS:
Communications
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Grassroots
New Initiatives
Youth Education
These workgroups are composed of NLC members as well as interested chapter members, and are supported by one or more TU staff members. In the coming months we will highlight these workgroups in more detail. In the meantime, if one of these workgroups sounds interesting to you and you would like to learn more, please contact Arizona’s NLC representative, Susan Geer, at the link below.
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DEI is a skill that we have to keep learning and practicing. Our goal is to make the need for this TU Workgroup obsolete. We would love to hear YOUR ideas about how to help encourage the love of nature and coldwater conservation to any underserved community. Also, ANYONE and everyone is invited to join in TU’s national Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Zoom workgroup on the third Thursday of each month at 8 p.m. Eastern time. |
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We are better because of you—so please join in the conversation! |
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Casting For Recovery UPDATE |
Applications are now being accepted for Arizona's Casting For Recovery retreat at the X Diamond Ranch May 13-15, 2022. The application deadline is March 4, 2022!
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Legislative Update by Nate Rees
The 2022 legislative session begins the second week of January 2022. AZTU plans to support pro-30X30 legislation in the AZ Legislature which will serve as a defense against the anti-30X30 legislation that Gail Griffin introduced last year. Nate and the PPC membership will be meeting with AZ legislators in anticipation of the start of the 2022 Session. Camo at the Capitol will be February 3rd. TU and the AZ Wildlife Federation will both have booths with activities on the AZ Capital lawn. The US Geological Survey has proposed to take uranium off the critical minerals list. This may support our efforts to continue the ban on uranium mining near the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, the Grand Canyon Protection Act appears to be in limbo.
Priority Waters
On December 14th, members of the PPC met with the Native Trout Leadership Team of the Arizona Game & Fish Department (AZGFD or GFD). We had a two hour discussion on the priority projects GFD has for stream restoration and native trout stocking over the next few years. Here are a few of the highlights:
- Barrier removal planning for Home, Stinky and Homeground Creeks in 2022 with actual removals beginning in 2024. These projects are in support of native Apache trout.
- Barrier construction on Haigler Creek in 2023 with removal of non-native fish in 2024-2025, followed by stocking of native Gila trout.
- The recently passed federal Infrastructure Bill has significant funds for investing in our forests. The US Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) will be getting significant funds ($200-800M) for "fish passage". The US Forest Service (USFS) is slated to receive $3B for Fuel Management and Wildfire Prevention. $80M is provided for Aquatic Restoration. And there is funding at the individual forest-level. AZGFD is interested in funding for work on the West fork of the Black River.
- AZGFD is working with the Tonto National Forest leadership to support restoration projects on Dude Creek (Fall of 2022) and Chase Creek (FY24/FY25). The restoration work that was done in the Spring of 2021 on the Upper East Verde will be monitored to see if the techniques used here (log chevrons anchored to bedrock) should be used elsewhere where the stream has been washed-out.
We are extremely grateful for the work done by AZGFD and for our on-going partnership.
Upcoming Events
January Meeting, Thursday, January 13th at 7:00 PM: Our guest speaker will be Ed Sanchez. Ed is the AZGFD Legislative Liaison to the Arizona State Legislature. He will be sharing his outlook of the upcoming legislative session, some of the Department's goals, and how the AZ-TU PPC can help.
2022 PPC Strategy Summit, February 5 from 9:00 to 1:00: We will be holding our PPC Annual Strategy Summit on Saturday, February 5th. Our Keynote Speaker will be Trevor Baggiore, the Director of Water Quality at the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (ADEQ). Trevor and his team will share with us what they learned in the process of drafting and stewarding the Surface Water Protection Act, which was signed by the Governor last summer; where they are in formalizing the Protected Surface Water List; how the Biden Administration's reversal of the Navigable Waters Rule and the return to the 2015 Rule will affect AZ; and what they see for the future of surface water in AZ. The location is TBD.
PPC Meeting Schedule Change
The PPC decided to move our meetings from the second Tuesday of the month to the second Thursday of the month to avert a conflict with the Arizona Flycasters Club meetings and allow our members to participate in both.
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The AZTU Public Policy Committee (PPC) hosts a virtual meeting on the second Thursday of the month at 7:00 until 8:00 PM. If you are interested, please contact Tom Osterday at publicpolicychair@zanegreytu.org
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Women's (ZOOM) Virtual Book Club:
Book - 52 Rivers, A Woman's Fly Fishing Journey by Shelley Walchak
Next conversation:
Thursday, January 20th, 6 PM
Join us whether you've read the book or not!
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Social Media:
Check out the Instagram page for
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Trout in the Classroom Update |
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What’s the Latest?
Even with challenges in the supply chain, progress continued with a shipment of replacement chemicals since some of the chemicals on-hand had expired. They arrived after Thanksgiving at the 40 schools expected to participate in the 2021 - 2022 school year.
One partner, who provides the chiller units, which maintain the water at the correct temperature, has not been successful in obtaining any materials to build new units. Unfortunately, this means several new schools will be delayed in starting the program.
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What’s Next?
The pickup of eggs and delivery to schools is still rescheduled for the week of February 1.
Volunteer drivers are needed for delivery day. If you have up to 3 hours available to deliver a bag of 100 rainbow trout eggs to a school near where you live please contact us at Volunteer.
More information on the TIC program can be found at the new website at www.aztic.org.
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Salt River Saturday - Join Us!! |
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Zane Grey Chapter and Arizona Flycasters Club are co-sponsoring
Salt River Saturday
Conservation and Fishing Event
January 15th and 29th
Sign-Up Email Coming Soon!
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LOCATION
Blue Point Recreation Area, Bush Hwy
DATE AND TIME
01/15/21 9:00am - 12:00pm
01/29/21 9:00am - 12:00pm
Salt River Saturday and trash pickup along the Salt River - We're back at the Blue Point Bridge
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Look for a sign-up email coming soon! |
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Silver Creek - Show Low, AZ |
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Zane Grey TU Youth Angler, Austin M., recently had the pleasure of fishing the upper catch & release section of Silver Creek over his Christmas break.
He reported back that an "awesome game & fish hatchery guy said Silver Creek unfortunately lost up to 90% of the fish in the upper section due to the monsoon floods this past summer. Many fish were stranded as waters receded back to the creek-bed, and many were suffocated by the silt."
Luckily, he was able to land a few good-sized rainbows on a combination of red midge larve, zebra midge emergers, and a size 20 parachute adams. Congrats, Austin!
The hatchery is working to add more fish to the C&R section over time.
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Looking for a Fishing Opportunity? |
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Below is a list of fishing organizations in Arizona. Feel free to join, explore, visit their websites or attend a meeting to find out more information: |
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AZ Flycasters Club
@ The American Italian Club
7509 N 12th St
Phoenix, AZ 85020
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Fly-Fishing Social Event night - 2nd Tuesday of each month. Great speaker and awesome raffle. Donations support our Community outreach partners from Veterans to Youth activities.
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Desert Fly Casters
Check website for details.
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General meeting 2nd Wednesday of each month. There may be some exceptions so check website for details.
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AZFISHBOOK offers a variety of social activities. Listed below are some of the activities available.
Check out the AZFISHBOOK Groups at:
Looking for buddy to fish with?
Signup for AZFishBook Newsletter:
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Join Trout Unlimited Today!
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REMEMBER:
Your Conservation License Plate Supports TU Programs
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The Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation (AZSFWC) license plate fund is derived from the sale of wildlife conservation license plates and member organizations as well as non-member organizations are eligible to apply for those funds.
The Arizona TU Council and Chapters have received funds over the past seven years in support of the Annual Native and Wild Trout Conferences and the Trout-In-the-Classroom programs.
The next time your registration comes up for renewal, choose the conservation license plate option at registration to show your support for conservation and our projects.
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Combined Calendar
AZ Trout Unlimited & Chapters, Arizona Flycasters Club and several other area fishing and conservation calendars
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You may access our calendar here.
Zane Grey Trout Unlimited
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Protect. Reconnect. Restore. Sustain. Conserving coldwater habitat in the desert southwest. |
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