- Trout in the Classroom Expansion. Led by the Zane Grey Chapter, and greatly facilitated by grants from Arizona Sportsmen for Wildlife Conservation (AZSFWC) AZ Conservation License Plate Fund and in co-operation with AZGFD, all chapters have expanded the Trout in the Classroom (TIC) Program to 33 Class-rooms statewide. TIC now directly involves over 4000 students, and reaches over 10,000 additional family members and friends.
- AZTU Hosted TU‘s Annual Western Regional 2017 Meeting in Scottsdale AZ, with approximately 200 attendees, including TU’s CEO Chris Wood and a number of National Officers and Staff Vice Presidents. Event included a significant Fund Raising Banquet, Educational workshops and a showcase for work done by a number of groups and collaborating organizations.
- TU National Annual Meeting Recognition for John Doss – John received TU’s Annual Communications Award for Digital Communications Media.
- 4FRI Rim Country EIS Aquatics Resources Field Trip. With AZGFD and the 4FRI Planning Work Group, campaigned for, helped plan, and sponsored a major 4FRI field trip on Canyon Creek. Stream res-toration work done there over several years by AZGFD and Natural Channel Design Co provided a variety of restoration tools to demonstrate management and tools for the 4FRI Aquatics Flexible Toolbox.
- TU Volunteers made presentations to the 4FRI Stakeholders Group Multi Party Monitoring Board to help launch Water & Aquatics Resources Monitoring techniques for the Rim Country EIS, were invited to present to the Collaborative Forest Landscape Restoration Program (CFLRP) Washington Office Staff field review for the 4FRI, and contributed to the development of the joint 4FRI SHG / USFS first ever Strategic Plan.
- Lees Ferry – Glen Canyon Dam Adaptive Management Program – The Recreational Fishing represent-atives sponsored by AZTU proposed significant actions for Fisheries Management and helped define and finalize the Tri-Annual Work Plan for research and monitoring work on the Colorado River. The group caused the convening of a major joint AZGFD & Federal Agency scientific workshop on Brown Trout Management, and was able to secure an extension of the comment period on an NPS proposed Environment Assessment for managing invasive species, especially Brown Trout, in the Lees Ferry RBT Fishery area.
- Major Arizona Conservation Events: The AZ Council was a Gold Sponsor for the Arizona Game and Fish Annual Commissioner’s Awards Banquet, with a large delegation of Council members in attend-ance. The Council also sponsored the AZSFWC fund-raising banquet. And with the AZGFD, co-spon-sored the 8th Annual Native and Wild Trout Conference, with the largest ever attendance of some 130+.
- An Apache Trout and a Gila Trout information Poster with Life History, Range and Conservation Status were published featuring artwork by Joseph Tomelleri with funding assistance from the Western Native Trout Initiative. These posters will help raise the awareness of Arizona’s Native Trout, and will be learning aids for TIC.
Click HERE for full report.
