{"id":769,"date":"2018-03-28T08:06:28","date_gmt":"2018-03-28T15:06:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saquailforever.com\/?p=769"},"modified":"2024-01-09T11:20:20","modified_gmt":"2024-01-09T18:20:20","slug":"03-28-presidents-corner-n-r-c-s-info-included","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/03-28-presidents-corner-n-r-c-s-info-included\/","title":{"rendered":"03\/28\/President’s Corner -N.R.C.S.Info included"},"content":{"rendered":"
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2018 Youth Hunt Attendees<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Overview:<\/div>\n
-Overall this has been a below average hunting year.\u00a0 Hunting reports have been mixed with the majority of folks having a tough season for both desert and mearns quail due to warmer than normal temperatures and tough scenting conditions.\u00a0 Bird numbers for desert quail appeared lower than normal and mearns also low but better than desert quail. \u00a0Our springs rains have been decent and with a little more at the right time we will keep our fingers crossed for decent desert numbers next fall.\u00a0 Mearns quail number are driven more by the summer monsoon rains.\u00a0 Overall habitat looks fairly good.<\/div>\n
-Our monthly meetings had good attendance averaging around 25 attendees.<\/div>\n
-Our road cleanup efforts which are intended to help keep Hog Canyon access open were well supported.<\/div>\n
-Banquet was well attended with positive income and good reviews.<\/div>\n
-Our youth hunt was a success although youth attendance was off compared to the last few years.\u00a0 The adult volunteers had a good time.\u00a0 We added an animal identification station this year which was well reviewed.<\/div>\n
-The chapter donated $4000 to QF national to support legislative activity to support the farm bill and the No Child Left Indoors program.<\/div>\n
-We did not complete a significant habitat project this year.\u00a0 Several have been reviewed and are in various stages of planning.\u00a0 We want to insure we work meaningful projects and the planning is key to doing the right things.<\/div>\n
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Dogs on point in Mearns Habitat<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Looking Forward:<\/div>\n
-Our chapter election cycle has started and we have received several nominations to fill officer positions that will make our chapter stronger.\u00a0 I expect we will complete the cycle with co-chairs for habitat and youth.<\/div>\n
-We have a committee assigned to review our monthly meeting location in search of a place or places with improved presentation capability (quieter).\u00a0 We are always looking for your recommendations to improve out meetings and speakers.<\/div>\n
-We will co-host the second annual Quail Festival with AZ G&F during the opening weekend for mearns in Dec.<\/div>\n
-Our youth hunt will be reviewed with the goal of more family involvement.<\/div>\n
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New QF\/PF Western Region Director:<\/div>\n
-Al Eiden was recently left AZ G&F and was hired by QF\/PF.\u00a0 Al will continue to reside in AZ and I see him much more involved with our chapter.\u00a0 He attended our March monthly meeting.\u00a0 He brings a wealth of information on wildlife issues in AZ.\u00a0 The following are comments he provided to forward to the chapter.<\/div>\n
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Windmill -SE Arizona<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Hello Everyone,<\/i><\/div>\n
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My name is Al Eiden, and I am the new Western Regional Director for Quail Forever.\u00a0 I am excited to be a part of Quail Forever, and want to start providing you all with some information about what Quail Forever is doing for you all in Arizona on a regular basis.\u00a0 So, here we go.<\/i><\/div>\n
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We are expecting Sarah Gandaria, our Farm Bill Biologist working out of Phoenix and Yuma, to be moving to Tucson in the next few months to provide wildlife expertise to NRCS, AZ Game and Fish, US Forest Service, BLM, and the State Land Department.\u00a0 Sarah will be filling the role that Rana Tucker had for AZ Game and Fish, but will be a QF staff person, helping us get our name in the ranching community.\u00a0 This change is expected to occur in the next couple months, but in the meantime Sarah will be working in Tucson a couple days a week.<\/i><\/div>\n
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NRCS recently approved a grant that will direct $1.25 million in funding to improve quail and pronghorn habitat in SE Arizona.\u00a0 The AZ Game and Fish Department, AZ Antelope Foundation, US Fish and Wildlife Partners Program, and the AZ Department of Agriculture have committed another $1.25 for a total of $2.5 million in funding to go on the ground in SE Arizona.\u00a0 The best part is that Sarah (our Farm Bill Biologist\u00a0mentioned above) will be developing all the projects for these funds.\u00a0 This is the value of the Farm Bill to SE Arizona Quail, and this project will lead to better habitat for quail and a bunch of other wildlife.<\/i><\/div>\n
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Just an FYI to the group, a future opportunity is coming our way\u00a0through the Farm Bill and NRCS’s Working Lands For Wildlife Program.\u00a0 This grant will pay for 1\/2 of another person like Sarah to do habitat restoration work on riparian habitats throughout Arizona.\u00a0 The riparian systems this position is likely to focus on are the San Pedro, Santa Cruz, Gila River west of Phoenix, and parts of the Verde River.\u00a0 All these areas are key for quail as well as the most important habitat for wildlife in our desert state.\u00a0 There are about $1.5 million dollars in NRCS and other grant funding available in Arizona each year\u00a0to improve riparian habitat if a person can develop the projects, which is what I envision this person to do if we can get the funding together for this grant.\u00a0 Part of this grant would be me asking the chapter to provide a little funding towards paying this person.\u00a0\u00a0If this is something you think is valuable, let you chapter habitat chair and president know and I will work with them to see if we can get another person working for us here in Arizona.<\/i><\/div>\n
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Finally, I want to thank you all for your support of Arizona Quail and Arizona Wildlife.\u00a0 You all are the future of conservation, and your dedication is the backbone of our organization.\u00a0 I am proud to be a part of such and outstanding group of people.<\/i><\/div>\n
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Male Mearns Quail<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Chapter Elections:<\/div>\n
-Nominations will close at the end of the day Friday 30 Mar.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0 After nominations close they must be accepted\/rejected and then seconded before a ballot will be distributed.\u00a0 Nominations received to date:<\/div>\n
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President\u00a0– Jim Littlejohn<\/div>\n
President – Zack May<\/div>\n
President – Dave Struyk<\/div>\n
VP – Dave Struyk<\/div>\n
VP – Zack May<\/div>\n
Secretary – Brian Tackett<\/div>\n
Secretary – Ron Walp<\/div>\n
Treasurer\u00a0– Linda Pfister<\/div>\n
Banquet Chair – Dave Struyk<\/div>\n
Youth Chair – Nick \u00a0Besenick<\/div>\n
Youth Chair – Tony Valentino<\/div>\n
Habitat – Tom Sullivan<\/div>\n
Habitat – Jim Littlejohn<\/div>\n
Website & social media – Dave Brown<\/div>\n
At Large – Steve Hopkins<\/div>\n
At Large – Ron Walp<\/div>\n
At Large – Howard Swenson<\/div>\n
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Future dates:<\/div>\n
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  • 14 Apr<\/span><\/span> Spring Road Cleanup<\/li>\n
  • 1 Jul<\/span><\/span> New Board in Place<\/li>\n
  • 19 Oct<\/span><\/span> Desert Quail Opens<\/li>\n
  • Fall Road Cleanup TBD<\/li>\n
  • 7 Dec<\/span><\/span> Mearns Quail Opens<\/li>\n
  • 8 Dec<\/span><\/span> Quail Festival w G&F Sonoita<\/li>\n
  • 2 Feb 19<\/span><\/span> 7th Annual Banquet Sonoita<\/li>\n
  • 17 Feb 19<\/span><\/span> Quail Closes<\/li>\n
  • 18\/19 Season Meetings TBD<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
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    Quail Forever values your privacy, all member emails are bcc. \u00a0Please let me know if you want to be removed from our distribution list.<\/div>\n
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    Gambels Quail<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Overview: -Overall this has been a below average hunting year.\u00a0 Hunting reports have been mixed with the majority of folks having a tough season for both desert and mearns quail due to warmer than normal temperatures and tough scenting conditions.\u00a0 Bird numbers for desert quail appeared lower than normal and mearns also low but better…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[6,14,29,33,39,53,55],"class_list":["post-769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-updates","tag-arizona-game-and-fish","tag-coronado-national-forest","tag-highway-clean-up","tag-mearns-quail","tag-quail-forever","tag-southern-arizona-quail-hunting","tag-u-s-fish-and-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=769"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2615,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/769\/revisions\/2615"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/saquailforever.com\/dev\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}