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Wenatchee
Sportsmen's 
Association

Rebuilding Chelan Butte Wildlife Feeders after 2024 Wildfire
 
Ron Russ Photo
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Important Interactions

Board Meeting Minutes

National Archery in Schools Program (NASP) Washington State Championship Needs Your Help | Feb. 13-15, 2025

 

When: February 14-15 2025, Setup 2/13

Where: Benton County Fairgrounds

Number of Volunteers: Unlimited

Hours: 10+    (If you help with setup, both days + tear down that’s 20+ hours)

Help Needed: Help setting up, help running the archery ranges (no previous experience needed, training will be provided).

Perks: You get paid for a hotel room + drive time + meals from NASP/ WSAA

**This is a great low impact option for MH hours. You will want to bring a chair, but will be up walking a bit during rounds.

 

Who to contact to participate:    Karen Palmer  WA-Archery@live.com

 

THIS WILL NOT BE IN CERVIS, paper MH hours forms will need to be printed and signed at the event by the coordinator.

 

Example of last years reimbursements that are approved for Master Hunters:

Hotel rate: $118 per day 

Meals: breakfast $17, Lunch $19, Dinner $33,  Days total $69

Mileage: $0.67 per mile  

You will need to keep all your original receipts for lodging and meals. You will need to keep record of your mileage each day. On day you travel from home, record mileage from your home to venue. On day you return home, record mileage from venue to home. Also keep record of your mileage for each day you travel to and from hotel to venue. 

Region 2 Master Hunter Opportunities/ Open to everyone-- You do not have to be a Master Hunter or Candidate Master Hunter

July 9, 2024

Keeping the Hunting Heritage Alive

What’s included:

 

 

·  ·   Help Bios with Waterfowl Activities in Grant/Adams Counties

·     Help Bios with Pygmy Rabbits

·     How to Become a Hunter Education Instructor

Continue reading for more information…

Help Bios with Waterfowl Activities in Grant/Adams Counties

Ongoing Opportunity

Assisting District Biologists and Waterfowl Section staff in waterfowl and migratory game bird monitoring activities including: banding, surveys, and other monitoring activities within District 5 (Grant and Adams counties). This is an ongoing activity so register if you are interested to be notified as opportunities open.

Learn More and Apply Here

Help Bios with Pygmy Rabbits

Working alongside WDFW biologists and technicians in the shrubsteppe habitat of northcentral Washington, volunteers will assist with implementing activities to establish two additional wild populations of the Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit.  Volunteers will assist with capturing juvenile rabbits from semi-captive breeding enclosures or from an existing wild population and translocating them to acclimation pens at release sites in the wild.  Assistance is also needed for maintaining and relocating captive breeding and acclimation pen infrastructure.

During capture efforts, we additionally collect biological samples for genetic monitoring and disease/health research.

Typically, reintroduction activities occur from early March through early October. 

Click Here to Apply

How to Become a Hunter Education Instructor

Many Master Hunters are also Hunter Education Instructors. You may have considered this in the past, but either figure the process was too complicated to get certified or the commitment too large. NOT TRUE.

Certification Process:

1. Complete two hour online best teaching practices course.

2. Attend a three hour Pre-Service Training that covers best teaching practices in hunter education, important policies, and resources for instructors.

3. Assist with a hunter education class to complete a mentoring checklist.

4. Pass a background check (just like with Master Hunter).

To maintain your certification:

·     Assist with one class each year. That’s it.

Hunter Education teams could use your skills and knowledge in safe, legal, and ethical hunting and firearm handling. This can take many forms and can be as simple as assisting with one class session which doesn’t always means having to teach in front of a group, but instead coach students. Contact Nick to learn all the ways you can assist!

Nick Montanari, Hunter Education & Volunteer Coordinator

(509) 449-9975; Nicholas.montanari@dfw.wa.gov

 

About

About

Who We Are

The Wenatchee Sportsmen’s Association (WSA) was founded in 1928 and incorporated in 1949. WSA is a nonprofit organization of conservation minded sportsmen who are dedicated to the preservation, enhancement and acquisition of wildlife habitat and to the conservation and responsible management of fish and wildlife in their natural habitats. WSA strives to ensure that outdoor recreation, fishing and hunting in our area will be preserved and enhanced for current and future generations. We sponsor and support youth programs to introduce youth to outdoor recreation, fishing and hunting.

WSA invites all interested people to become members. You need not be an outdoor recreationist, hunter, fisher, wildlife viewer. to join and participate in our activities. All board meetings and general meetings are open to the public. Attend a meeting, participate in a work project and you may develop lifelong friendships while participating in activities that benefit wildlife, wildlife habitat or youth.  Anyone interested in volunteering, contributing monetary donations or donations of goods/materials contact us for information.

Rock Island/Rock Island Community Food Bank and WSA Youth Fishing Day at Pit Pond

Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recognized the Wenatchee Sportsman’s Association as it's Organization of the Year in 2019

WSA Kids Fishing Day

City of Rock Island-Rock Island Community Food Bank and WSA sponsored Kids Fishing Day at the Pit Pond

Fishing happy

A Happy Angler at the Pit Pond in Rock Island

Filling wildlife feeder

WSA Volunteers Clean Up Homeless Camp at Lily Lake 2023

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WSA Volunteers fill feeders with grain for wintering wildlife

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WSA  and many local groups sponsor Youth Hunting and Fishing Day 2019

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Pruning brush from  water sources in Navarre Coulee  (spring 2024).  Volunteer for our work parties.  Come out and help and feel good about giving back when you are done ! Work will usually qualify for Master Hunter volunteer  hours.
 
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Denny Snyder and his daughter Hope, staff the WSA 2024 Salmon Festival booth.

WSA volunteers rebuild one of six wildlife feeders  destroyed  in 2024  Chelan Butte wildfire.

wildlife feeder
wildlife feeder

There are forty-five feeders that have been built and  are maintained by WSA for wildlife on the Quilomene, Colockum and Chelan Wildlife Areas to supplement native forage during winter. An example of the feeders used are depicted above - the feeder on the right is an “A-Frame” type feeder and the feeder on the left is a “Deer Friendly Feeder.” The A-Frame is designed for easier access for filling and is designed to prevent deer and elk from accessing the grain. Both feeders contain barrels having a hole in the bottom and resting on a feed tray. The barrels are filled with wheat, corn or a combination of wheat and corn depending upon the type of birds in the vicinity that are being fed during the winter. They are filled with grain supplied by WDFW or purchased by WSA in the late fall so that the birds have access to food when the ground is covered with snow. Birds being fed are predominately quail, chukars, Hungarian partridge, and turkeys.

water guzzler in burned habitat
water guzzler in undisturbed habitat
wildlife water source
wildlife water source

Over one hundred water sources have been developed and are maintained by the WSA for wildlife use on the Quilomene, Colockum and Chelan Wildlife Areas. The water sources vary from old stock tanks that were used by  pioneer farmers on the WDFW lands, to modern stock tanks and vinyl half barrels inserted in the ground.   There are tanks connected to natural springs located in the vicinity by poly pipe – sometimes the springs are four to five hundred yards away.  Often, the natural springs by themselves are too small, located in inaccessible vegetation, or too deep underground to provide an adequate water source for animals. In early spring, the water sources are checked to confirm that they are properly functioning.  Oftentimes, lines get blocked by silt, broken from freezing, or chewed by coyotes and have to be repaired.

Where natural springs are nonexistent, guzzlers are used to capture rain and snow melt. Two of the many guzzlers used are depicted in the bottom two pictures. The tank on the left depicts one surrounded by natural vegetation and the one on the right is one rebuilt after it was burned in the 2013 Colockum wildfire. The guzzlers are composed of a five hundred-gallon, fiberglass tank buried in the ground with two collector shields to capture snow melt or rain to fill the tank. There is a ramp that descends into the tank so small animals  can climb out of the water.

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Get Involved --Fish, Wildlife, Habitat and our youth

need you

 Since, we are not having a banquet this year, the WSA Board made the decision to carry 2023  memberships through 2024.  If you attended the banquet  or purchased a membership in 2023 you do not need to purchase a 2024 membership and will continue to receive the Guzzler monthly newsletter.   Of  course, we welcome new members, if you want to receive our newsletter and keep abreast of volunteer opportunities  and meeting programs, please join us.   Donations to support our mission are welcome.  

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Thank you for helping us make a difference!

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PO Box 762 Wenatchee, Wa. 98807-0762

Info@wenatcheesportsmensassociation.org 

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