March 2023, Volume 78 No. 3
Club Website- www.richlandrodandgun.org
Club Facebook- www.Facebook.com/RichlandRodandGunClub
2022 Officers
MEETINGS AND DEADLINES
Next General Meeting – March 7th, 7:00 PM at Richland Public Library
Next Board Meeting- March 21st, 7:00 PM at Griggs Pasco Hunter Ed room
April Newsletter Contribution Deadline is March 22nd email:
Secretary
Carla Boeringa
(509) 375-7791
President
Matt Cummings
(509) 948-4905
RRGC is again offering college students an opportunity to apply for one of our scholarships. Application instructions and forms for the 2023 RRGC Memorial Scholarship are contained in the three files below.
RRGC has been awarding scholarships to college students since 1993. We included the University of Idaho Department of Natural Resources in our outreach in 2005 and have awarded scholarships to twenty-one U of I students in spite of the recent COVID disruption followed by no applications submitted last year. We are looking forward to a better response from students this year. The application deadline isn’t until mid-April so that should provide ample time for applications to be prepared and submitted.
For more info contact Mike Estes, RRGC Scholarship Committee, 509-551-9066
Treasurer
Richard Libby
(509) 947-0498
RRGC March Election of Officers and Trustees
According to our By-Laws: 4.4: With the exception of the Immediate Past President, the Officers and Trustees shall be elected annually by a majority vote of the members present at the March general membership meeting. They will assume the responsibilities of their offices at the April general membership meeting. The list of Officers and Trustees recommended by the Nominating Committee to be voted on at the March General Membership Meeting is as follows:
Officers Recommended For Election March 2023
President - Matt Cummings
Vice President – No Candidate
Treasurer - Rick Libby
Secretary – Carla Boeringa
Trustees Recommended For Election March 2023
Packy Lackey Dave Myers Dale Schielke
Larry Martin John Prather Mike Estes
John Merk Gene Van Liew Paul Kison
Ron Moore Bruce Hewitt Connie Cummings
Dave Miller Peter Workman Monte Kelsey
Nominations for Vice President and all other positions can be made from the floor during the meeting with the exception of the Past President.
Lunker Lake Numbers for 2023
RRGC had its best year yet for Lunker Lake! Here are the numbers:
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Fish count Friday 238Funds $740
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Fish count Saturday 702Funds $2,019.25
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Fish count Sunday 231Funds $1000 Sportsman’s Warehouse
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End of Show count 134Funds $250 Shuyler Productions
Thank you to everyone who volunteered to make Lunker Lake successful!
Wild Game Dinner Tickets and Quality Trip Tickets
Tickets for the Wild Game Dinner ($25 each) and Quality Trip Tickets ($25) will be on sale at both the next General Meetings on Feb 7th and Mar 7th. We will have the ability at those times to take cards as well as cash. Don’t forget you have to be a member to participate in the Quality Trip raffle and to make sure and get your tickets for both the dinner and the raffle early!!!
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KOE Kids Fishing Day
April 21st and 22nd are the dates for Kids Fishing Day so mark your calendars. However, there is preparation to do before the event. April 1st will be a rod building even at Griggs Hunter Ed room in Pasco starting at 9:00am. Sausage Daddy will be providing food for this gathering and if you would like to pick up rods to take home and put together you may pick them up at this time.
Youth Conservation Camp
If you have kids, grandkids or know of kids ages 12 – 16 interested in the Youth Conservation Camp on Orcus Island please send Larry Martin and email at larry49martin@gmail.com RRGC sponsors a number of kids for this camp. Registration will take place in February and the camps are July 16th – 22nd for girls and July 23rd – 29th for boys.
We currently have 4 campers registering for this summer! If you have a prospective camper there is still time to have them registered.
Yakima Delta Ecosystem Restoration
Public information meetings were held at the Reach Museum on February 23 to discuss a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plan to breach the causeway to Bateman Island to improve migration of adult salmonids up the Yakima River and reduce predation on outbound juvenile salmonids in the river delta. The Corps’ preferred alternative is a complete removal of the causeway. Concerns with the preferred alternative include potential impacts to the West Columbia Park boat launch and marina during high water and ice floe breakup, loss of pedestrian access to the island for recreation, obstruction to fighting fires on the island, and loosing potentially harmful contaminants that have accumulated in the river delta through siltation since construction of McNary Dam nearly 70 years ago.
Public comments about the plan will be accepted until March 10, 2023 online, via mail, or via email. To view the draft report and for more information visit the project website at https://www.nww.usace.mil./Missions/Projects/yakima-river-delta-ecological-restoration/
RRGC Memorial Scholarship
RRGC has been offering scholarships to college students pursuing a conservation related degree since 1993. Students must have enough academic credits to at least be of junior undergraduate status for the upcoming fall registration.
Scholarship winners have majored in Wildlife Biology, Wildlife and Fisheries Resources, Wildlife Management, Rangeland Ecology and Management, Fire Ecology and Rangeland Conservation, Ecology and Conservation Biology, and Biology Entomology. A few recipients were working on Masters degrees or were PhD candidates.
Application instructions and forms are posted near the bottom of the RRGC home page (most likely the page on which you are reading this newsletter). Applications must be postmarked by April 10, 2023 or submitted via email by April 15, 2023.
Please share this opportunity with anyone who you feel might qualify, or call Mike Estes (509-551-9066) for assistance.
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A photo taken by Ron Ruth from the 2023 Youth Pheasant Hunt on February 18th.
Guzzlers
Larry Martin was out on February 9th checking guzzlers to see if a couple of them needed repairs due to the fire last year in the area. Luckily they were good and not in need of repairs but did get cleaned up. On February 14th he went to check on a different guzzler and for the first time ever found one damaged by humans. There were shot gun holes, rock damage, rocks in the tank, and they tried to take the tank out but did not succeed. If you would like to help Larry he would really appreciate it. You can get in touch with him at larry49martin@gmail.com
Wild Game Dinner Presentation
“AN EVENING WITH A RACONTEUR”
Butch, aka Cee Dub, followed in his dad’s footsteps as they hunted and fished all over SE Idaho for twenty plus years. Not only was his dad, Buzz, an avid outdoorsman, but he was a pretty good cook and a storyteller, too! As the old saying goes, “Like father, like son”!
Over the years, Butch has honed his ability as a storyteller, which many may be acquainted with from reading his Dutch oven cookbooks or attending his cooking demonstrations at sports shows. In his new book, Chronicles of a Raconteur, Volume I, Cee Dub left out all the recipes. Through his stories, he takes the reader on his journey from growing up as a snot-nosed kid in SE Idaho, through his college years, to being a grizzly bear trapper, a game warden, an undercover wildlife investigator, author, and television personality.
He will share some stories of his adventures with the audience.
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2023 Youth Pheasant Hunt
This year’s 2023 Hunter Ed Pheasant Hunt was held on February 18th at the Limits
Game Farm. There were 20 hunter ed students present this year. The first group, started
out at the Connell Gun Club with some clay bird shooting to warm the students up for
their hunt. After clay bird shooting the first group went down to Limits Game Farm and
was given a safety briefing for the upcoming hunt then paired up with mentors and dog
handlers and proceeded to their hunting location. This year we had a couple of different
hunting areas from the past couple of years that added some interesting opportunities.
The second group of students arrived around 10 am at the Connell Gun Club and
proceeded to shoot clay birds warming them up for their hunt. After the second group
finished shooting clay birds, they went down to Limits Game Farm and were met by the
first group of students coming back from their hunt. At that time all the students attended
a “hunting clinic” put on by Aaron Garcia of WDFW. At the end of Aaron’s presentation
WDFW game enforcement officer Brian Fuller spoke to the students about his role as a
game enforcement officer. After the clinic everybody met in the main building where a
awesome lunch was provided by Limits Game Farm and Pheasants Forever (PF). This
year we fed over 110 people. The chicken, Tri Tip, and all the fixings were attacked, and
nobody left the dining hall hungry. After lunch the second group of students was given a
safety briefing for their upcoming hunt and paired up with mentors and dog handlers and
proceeded to their hunt. Around 5:00 pm the afternoon hunters were back at Limits Game
Farm with their harvest of birds. Pheasants Forever Ringold Chapter provided over 60
pheasants that were released for the two hunting groups. The weather was good. Almost
all the student hunters got a bird, and all of them got to shoot at a bird. A lot of shooting
was done by all the students and a lot of ammo was expended! Special thanks goes out to
several of the sponsors of this year’s hunter ed pheasant hunt: McCary Meats for
supplying Tri Tip, Ringold PF Chapter for purchasing and preparing the food and birds,
Connell Gun Club for providing the facilities and clay bird thrower, Marylin Steele for
delicious desserts, Barry and Hugh McEachen for extra chairs and tables, WDFW for
putting on the hunting clinic, and to Brian Fulton, enforcement officer, for his
presentation, Richland Rod and Gun Club for providing guns to those students that
didn’t have one, and the ammunition for the clay bird shooting, and a very nice monitory
donation, and Griggs Department Store in Pasco for the hunting ammunition and clay
birds. Additionally special thanks to Wade and Angie Conant for all the behind the
scenes help and providing the eye and ear protections, over 25 individuals who
volunteered this year as either mentors or dog handlers, several PF volunteers who helped
with the set up of the dining hall, did all the cooking, planted the pheasants, and showed
the hunter ed students how to clean birds. And last but certainly not least a very special
thanks to Dave and Pam Piovesan of Limits Game Farm for all the help, coordination,
facilities, and making sure this year’s hunter ed pheasant hunt was a success. Thanks to
everybody!
Ron Ruth
Chief Hunter Ed Instructor
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Photo of the month
Get Involved in RRGC
There has never been a better time to get involved in the club. The best way to start is by attending the monthly meetings. Come support the club and these speakers. Save the date on your calendar for the first Tuesday of the month at 7:00pm at the Richland Public Library.
Update your contact information!
If you have changed your address, your phone number, or your email address please use this link and scroll to the bottom of the page where it says
“Update My Contact Information”.
Richland volunteer opportunities for members (richlandrodandgun.org)
Also get involved in one of our Committees:
Salmon in the Classroom: Gene Van Liew – e.van-liew@hotmail.com
Wild Game Dinner: Marilyn Steele – momhoops46@gmail.com
Wood Ducks: Dale Schielke – dahlialou@gmail.com
KOE – Kids Fishing Day: Marilyn Steele – momhoops46@gmail.com
Hunter Ed: Ron Ruth – RonRuth.HunterEd@frontier.com
Guzzlers: Larry Martin - larry49martin@gmail.com
Youth Conservation Camp - larry49martin@gmail.com
Scholarship: Mike Estes - estesm34@gmail.com
Website: Greg Boeringa – admin@richlandrodandgun.org
Lunker Lake: Matt Cummings – riverviewcounsel@gmail.com
Dale Schielke – dahlialou@gmail.com
RRGC Club Upcoming Activities
Wild Game Dinner Food Prep – March 4th &5th, Marilyn’s House
Wild Game Dinner – March 25th, Fairgrounds
Hunter Education class at Griggs Pasco - April 3rd thru 8th -9 AM till Noon
Salmon Summit at Columbia Park - April 17th & 18th
KOE Rod Building Session – April 1st Hunter Ed Room at Grigg’s in Pasco
KOE (Kids Fishing Day) April 22nd
Pikeminnow Fish-In – May 20th
Catfish Challenge – June
Hunter Education class at Griggs Pasco – June 19 - 24th
Club Picnic - August
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Photo Gallery
Intro to Fishing Class
Youth Pheasant Hunt
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Sausage making for WGD
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Wild game dinner is today!
Benton County Fairgrounds, Bldg 4
About
Richland Rod & Gun Club is an organized group of hunters, fishermen, and conservationists who share a common interest in the outdoors. Each year the Club members volunteer in a number of work projects that improve wildlife habitat, educate young potential hunters / fisherman, and raise funds for Club projects.
Meetings
The RICHLAND ROD & GUN CLUB meets the first non holiday Tuesday of each month except July and August at 7:00
The meetings are open to the public and consist of a short business meeting followed by a program of current interest.
Board meetings are held on the third Tuesday at 7:00 at Griggs Pasco meeting facility.
The Richland Rod and Gun Club offers opportunities to work in activities associated with wildlife, the outdoors and youth education. We would appreciate your involvement with one of our projects or programs that include, Fishing, Dog Training, Scholarship, Public Lands, Youth Activities, Migratory Waterfowl, Habitat, Game Birds, Big Game , Landowner Relations.
Content contributions, suggestions, or criticism to the RRGC website should be emailed to, admin@richlandrodandgun.org
Click this PDF icon to download the 2023 March newsletter
Photo of the Month
Contest Guidelines
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Must be taken in current license year.
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May include hunting, fishing, habitat, camping.
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Must include a critter (human or wild).
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Harvested game must include the hunter or angler.
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Winners will be selected by the Board of Directors.
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All photos become property of the Club.
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Note: The Board may use discretion in applying the guidelines when selecting the winning photo.
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Please include name of photographer and date taken.
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To submit entry, Bring photo print to board meeting, or email to admin@richlandrodandgun.org at least 6 hours before a board meeting.
Wood Duck Education and Boxes
It’s that time of year and again and Dale Schielke and John Merk are busy cleaning and doing maintenance on wood duck boxes in preparation for nesting season. In addition to that Libby Middle School, Richland Homelink, and a couple girl and boy scout groups are building boxes and learning all about wood ducks. Some are even going on a field trip to see what it’s all about firsthand. Dale has also submitted the ALEA grant for the 2023-25 Youth Education and Wood Duck Enhancement from the Richland Rod and Gun Club to WDFW. It is currently being reviewed.
Recall Petition for WDFW Commissioner Lorna Smith
This is a link to a petition to recall WDFW Commissioner Lorna Smith. She is one of the reasons the spring bear hunt was cancelled. RRGC is not taking a position on this recall petition but wanted to let our members know about it, inform themselves and make their own decision on whether to sign it or not. RRGC did send a letter to the WDFW Chairperson Barbara Baker and copied the head of WDFW Kelley Susewind expressing our extreme disappointment with the decision last year.
Intro to Fishing Class
Richard Sharp with the assistance of other RRGC members put on a fabulous Introduction to Fishing Class on March 23rd at the Richland Public Library. The class was well attended with 40 students of all ages. Kids with parents, young adults and adults all gathered to have the benefit of Richard’s knowledge. They learned about rods, reels, bait and tackle along with where and how to fish our local area for trout, bass, and crappie. The class got hands on experience tying knots, rigging a set up for trout and baiting a hook. There was also a raffle where one lucky student got a rod and reel all set up plus a tackle box with everything they need to go out and start fishing.
Meatball making for WGD
