Happy 2021 we hope it is better than 2020 was. We want to give an update to our members of all the happening since October. As stated in the last newsletter we held the October membership meeting outdoors at the Tannery Dam. All the officers were reelected, and Rich Ferrara and Steve Maleski were also reelected. Kelly Williams has been elected to Regional VP with State Council and gave an update of what was happening there. She stated that all the chapters as well as council have been negatively impacted by the corona virus and are finding ways to work around it. We did not receive a reply to the letter we wrote to Ole Bull State Park about the fish ladder, but we received word from a member that it has been removed and fish can move throughout the watershed. It was also decided that we would hold our annual organizational dinner at Hoss’s on November 5th.
No business was conducted at the dinner and our next board meeting would be in January.
1st Quarter Board Meeting
We held our 1st quarter board meeting on January 14th via zoom. As expected, the main topic was the Annual Fundraiser that is scheduled to be held April 10th. This fundraiser dinner has been CANCELED!
We felt that it would still be unsafe to host a large gathering at this time. It does present a problem though. We have been spending more than we have brought in and with donations that will be talked about later in this letter, along with just keeping the chapter up and running. Our cash flow has been nonexistent. Also, the move to a larger storage unit and purchasing shelves and totes to organize our supplies while within the budget still was more than what we raised in 2020. With this said, we are still holding our annual raffle. The prizes will be the same as last year, CASH! All our members will once again receive a book of tickets and it is hoped you can purchase them. if you can sell more, we really need the help since this is the only fundraiser, we are having this year.
We still have several projects that were not done this past year. We have a joint project with the PA Game Commission on Clover Run. We were asked to investigate some maintenance on habitat work we had done years ago on Big Run Creek, as well as the Coldwater Heritage Project on the same stream. We found that the Western PA Conservancy received funding for riparian work on the Clarion River at Clear Creek. We had done a planting to help stabilize the bank along this stretch with help from students at Brockway Area Schools two years ago, so this is welcome news. The Conservancy is also planning to do some habitat work in Clear Creek itself, so watch the website or future newsletters for updates and details.
HELP NEEDED
Matt Marusiak asked for some help for trimming and general maintenance on Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Dr Colson Blakeslee Memorial Recreation Area property in Medix Run. This property is right along 555 just past the turn to Quehanna. A spring clean-up workday is scheduled for Monday April 26th at 10am in the parking area and we encourage a good turn-out. It is hoped that a couple of our members would then be willing to help regularly maintain the parking area and the area around Doc’s memorial to keep it from getting overgrown throughout the summer. It would be great to see some of our members that day and maybe even do a little fishing afterwards. If you are able to come, or need more details or directions, please reach out to Matt at mmarusiak@paconserve.org or 814-771-4136.
Other items voted on at the meeting.
As stated above this meeting was a zoom meeting that allows other to see each other and talk or to call in and participate. We decided to purchase a nonprofit license so we can use this platform for other meetings and events.
We are awarding the following nonprofits:
PATU- $500.00
Western PA Conservancy -$500 (Matt Marusiak recused himself)
Toby Creek Watershed for tree planting-$100.
Kettle Creek Watershed-$100
Headwaters RC&D Council-$100
Prior to the October meeting several members met at the McCracken Run Storage to move out all the items used by the chapter to our new unit in Rathmel. We found items that we forgot that we owned. Big Thanks goes out to Doug Wolfe and Rich Ferrara, they spent a Sunday going through and organizing the merchandise and putting them in new totes, as well as building the shelves. Anyone who ever seen the old shed would be amazed how nice it now looks. Once we moved in it was very clear that a larger unit then the one we had was needed. Thanks to A&R Storage for helping in securing a 10×10 unit. Again, thanks to Doug the move to the larger unit was accomplished with little issues.
We have some items still, at the old shed, if anyone is interested: 4×4 cork board; file cabinet; old projectors and cubical dividers. We will be cleaning out the balance of item near the end of February, there may be other items there as well. If interested email the chapter at amctu036@gmail.com by February 28th or it goes away forever.
We had many folks ask if we would be hosting our weekly flytying roundtable. Once again due to the virus we canceled this. There may be a chance the someone would like to host this virtually via zoom, then this may be the way we go.
Along with the banquet so were all school events canceled this year. Perhaps later this year the chapter can host a Family Fishing Event. Watch the website for updates on current events and cancelations.
We had a discussion on the removal of several dams on some of our small streams that are no longer used or in major need of repair. While some folks like to fish dams most dams on small streams do very little the help the watershed or the trout as they raise the temperature of the water downstream. No specifics were given just that the chapter would be looking to the best agency to help with the removal.
In case some do not know we now have new Waterways Conservation Officers in both Clearfield and Jefferson County. Justin Schillaci in Clearfield and Shania Painter in Jefferson. It would be great to host a virtual meeting between now and the “official” start of trout season. We may also have other virtual meetings if there is interest.
We have not talked to Terry at Jim’s Sports, but keep an eye out for his anniversary sell in March. We have been supporters of his sale, tying flies and selling raffle tickets and giving fishing tips. Hopefully, this event will be held in some fashion this spring.
As seen above we do have a chapter email. If everyone who receives our newsletter would send an email to the amctu036@gmail.com address, we would be able to easily send notices of thing the chapter is doing. We have used the email from National TU, but we notice that the # of members who wish to receive email through National keeps dropping. Newsletters are great but it seems like it becomes harder and harder to keep them coming out at least quarterly. We know that email is not the answer either, but by using all of them together, email, website, and newsletter, we should be able to provide everyone with what the chapter is doing.
The Chapter hopes that we soon can get together as we have in the past and we hope that everyone stays safe.
Allegheny Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited 