President’s Message:
Dear Mid-Missouri Trout Unlimited Members,
Our next meeting will be June 6th at the Collins Shelter in Stevens Lake Park from 6:00 PM until 9:00 PM. The parks web page is here: https://www.como.gov/parks/stephens-lake-park/. The address for the entrance closest to the Collins Shelter is: 2001 Broadway, Columbia. The chapter provides hot dogs, condiments, paper plates, cups and plasticware. Please come with a dish and beverage to share. This meeting is open to significant others and many do attend so if you can please bring your significant other.
This month we had the highly anticipated Wisconsin Driftless trip. I will let others report on that trip as I was not present. But I hear it was a great time.
The Driftless trip did coincide with the Trout Unlimited Western Regional Conference in Toas, New Mexico which both Jeff Holzem and I attended.
I attended mostly meetings on issues related to managing TU Chapters at the conference. There was a lot of good information presented and some good ideas on how to grow and improve chapters. I will present more information in the fall at our next regular meeting. A major item is that TU national is moving away from a members only approach. We have heard Jeff Witten mention this before. A person who is contributing funds or volunteer hours and is not a member is as important to TU as its members and not all members contribute equally to the work of TU. TU is working on tools to track who these non-member contributors are and who the TU member contributors are so we can acknowledge them. I also learned a lot about the unique issues of the Western cold water fisheries and got to do some fishing in New Mexico.
Jeff was at the meeting in his capacity as a member of the Climate Change Workgroup and ran a great meeting on the role of the Climate Coordinators and there was some good discussion about what the job entails.
As reported in previous meetings and newsletters the chapter is planning a trip to the Flat Top Wilderness near Yampa, Colorado from August 14 to August 18. This is will be a largely unstructured trip like the Wisconsin trip. Everyone will be arranging transportation individually and there will be a number of folks traveling together. Many of us will be glad to have additional passengers to share the expenses so please come join us. Mike Kruse will be the contact for this Trip. A few of us plan to backpack for one to two days and if you would like to join us please contact Curt Morgret. If you don’t have backpacking gear we can probably help you arrange to borrow some.
I hope we have a big turnout for the hot dog burn. I will not be attending so I hope to see you at the next regular meeting in September.
Doug Grove
douggrove@yahoo.com or 573-999-5114
More on the Western Regional Rendezvous in Taos:
As Doug mentioned he and I got to attend the conference. I was very impressed by the dedication and accomplishments of so many members. Since TU is a conservation organization, the sessions dealt with threats to trout from climate related disasters: fires, floods and droughts. TU does incredible work to help trout adapt to warming conditions. Another theme was responsible energy development to reduce emissions. This is a link to the agenda: https://www.tu.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/Western-Regional-Agenda-Web-4.27.pdf.
There were a couple of success stories. Prior to 2006 Gila trout were endangered, but major conservation work allowed them to be down listed to threatened. Now limited fishing is allowed. After a fire, heavy rains fill streams with sediment, covering vegetation and clogging fish gills. If the trout cannot move to another part of the watershed that is not impacted, they do not survive. In some cases fish passage barriers designed to keep out non-native trout prevent migrations. However after a fire and before the flood 158 Gila trout were rescued, sent to hatcheries and used to stock other streams with a new strain.
Chris Wood shared another great success story, the Arizona’s Apache Trout recovery. With help from TU and Native People the Apache Trout was removed from the endangered species list.
Extra Gear:
If you have equipment you are not using bring it to the hot dog burn and it may find a new home.
Water Quality Monitoring Certification Opportunity:
Level 2 and Validation trainings are combined starting Summer 2022. Monitors attending Level 2 for the first time will complete an online training prior to attending the in-person certification. A link to online training will be emailed after registration.
The focus of the VWQM Level 2 training will be Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) procedures to improve the quality of volunteer data. At this training, water samples will be analyzed in the classroom by monitors using their program-issued equipment. Attendees will also improve aquatic invertebrate identification skills.
PREREQUISITES TO ATTEND LEVEL 2: Completion of VWQM Level 1 and submission of two seasons of data including biological, water chemistry, visual survey, and stream discharge. Greg and Doug have completed the prerequisites and are eligible to register.
The training in Jefferson City will be July 29 and this is the link to register https://www.mostreamteam.org/assets/level2_schedule.pdfhttps://www.mostreamteam.org/assets/level2_schedule.pdf with Event Passcode DE59.
There are three websites for more information:
Training materials are available at https://www.mostreamteam.org/training-materials-and-resources.html
Macroinvertebrates: https://www.macroinvertebrates.org/
Tri-Lakes Fishing Expo:
Doug and John attended this event in Clinton, MO on March 11.
Jeff Holzem
Newsletter Editor
Ozark Council Climate Change Coordinator
President
Doug Grove
Vice President
Travis Figg
Past President
John Wenzlick
Secretary
Nathan McLeod
Treasurer
Brandon Butler
Banquet Chairs
Alternative Funding Committee
Travis Figg
Education Director
John Wenzlick
Membership
Curt Morgret
Conservancy
Bill Lamberson
Conservancy
Sam Potter
e-Newsletter
Jeff Holzem
Web Master
Ty Figg
Facebook editor
Ben Moore