Meeting Minutes 02/16/2017

Southern AZ Quail Forever 16 Feb meeting minutes.

Meeting took place at Steakout in Sonoita 16 Jan

We had 36 people attend including three from AZGFD.  Social started at 6:30 with formal meeting start at 7:00.

Agenda:

-Treasurer; $29,359 in bank, no outstanding issues.

-Schedule; schedule for 17-18 hunt season provided and attached below.

-Banquet; Banquet results provided.  Banquet sold out with 177 paid attendees.  Banquet made nearly $21,000 for the chapter.  Lesson have been collected by the committee to improve future banquets.  Will increase attendance cap to 200 next year.  Member attendee (not including spouses/guests) breakdown:  out of state 41, Tucson region 43, Phoenix and northern AZ 14 and southern AZ 17.

-Habitat; Tom provided a slide show of the completed water for wildlife project and discussed potential options for new projects.

-Mearns Quail Study;  Linda provided an update on recent work completed on the diet study.  It is on track.

-Hog and Adobe Canyons update;  Ron Walp provided an update on the status of the potential closure of the roads leading into the canyons from Highway 82.  The Crown C association has elected a new president who has provided the Forest Service a letter indicating they will work sign issues and work an agreement with AZGFD to ensure continued access.  This all looks favorable but it is not done until it is done.

-Youth hunt;  Nick provided update on youth activity planned 4 Mar at Maternity Wells site at Empire Ranch.  Nick Besenick will be soliciting volunteers to help.

-New chapter board member;  Ron Walp was nominated and elected to a new Community Relations board position where he will continue to lead our highway cleanup effort and ensure our out of state members interests are considered.  Congrats to Ron who has worked hard to support this chapter, the wildlife of AZ and pay back for many years of enjoying the outdoors.  We still have other board positions open, please let me know if you are willing to help.

-Speakers;

Kirby Bristow Research Biologist from Arizona Game and Fish Department will present Quail Hunting Arizona.  His presentation will provide information on Gambels, Scaled and Mearns Quail including habitat where they are found, what they eat, breeding info and how to best hunt them.  His presentation will be put on our website.

Wade Zarlingo our AZGFD partner discussed the new license requirements for those wishing to train their dogs using pen raised game birds.  The new rules require a new license for every 10 day period and each location you plan to train.  I will forward these rules and a form to use if you wish to challenge AZGFD on this policy.  Wade lives in northern AZ and had a nearly 4 hour drive home after the meeting.  We really appreciate Wade’s support to the chapter.

Mearns Quail Barrel results;  Brittany Oleson our local game warden reviewed the results of totally the inputs from the Mearns quail barrels.  She will get formal results out to us but overall the barrels showed about 1 bird a day decrease compared to last year.  We had several chapter members assist with the count which was done earlier this week.  She also passed out quail wings to those wanting to use them for dog training.

New actions:  none.

Meeting adjourned at 8:35.

Future chapter events;