CouesWhitetail

Cool! Was that a carving or a painting? It looks more like it's painted or drawn than carved.

Has anyone done a tally on how many legislators are for or against the bill? How many have to be in the no column to stop the bill?

Runningbird, can you post the fact sheet you sent to legislators?

I agree with that AZbowhtr...to me the rhetoric is a waste of time. What makes a real difference are actions....writing and calling your legislators and letting them know where you stand on this bill or anything like it. Call your friends and get them informed, get them to contact their legislators as well. The proponents of the bill believe passionately in what they are doing....you have to convince your legislators that this is the wrong direction.

This past weekend was the Brady Wash water catchment project in unit 37B. Several volunteers came out to help on this project including many CW.com'ers and RMEF folks. This is the 5th completed project out of 7 that unit manager Ben Brochu has planned in the unit to help wildlife in the area, mule deer in particular. Ben reported to us that the other four projects are full of water and lots of wildlife are using them as documented by trail cameras. Ben also reported that Unit 37B is one of the few units in the state that has an increasing mule deer population. This project uses a new type of design which collects water using a small diversion dam which just slows water flow in a wash but does not stop its flow. It's amazing to me that this type of small dam in a small wash can collect enough water to fill the 11,500 gallon tanks. This is very different than the usual concrete apron or metal collection system used in the past. According to Chris McCotter (aka cmc) this design saves sportsmen about $10,000 per water catchment. This design has been used on many of the Sheep Society projects and it apparently works very well. here is a pic of the water collection part of this project. Once the water enters that small pipe it goes into the siltation box that separates out silt before the water then flows into the holding tanks. The holding tanks for this project are very different than the usual round tanks. Instead they are four 24 inch diameter pipes that can hold as much water as the old design but are long instead of tall and therefore don't have to be buried as deep. The buried water tanks are level with the drinker so that the there are no pumps or floats necessary to have water enter the drinker. The drinker is a walk in type that is lined with rocks/concrete to make sure all wildlife can climb out. Once the piping and everything is completed, then the site is revegetated and pipe fencing placed around the entire site to exclude cattle. The fence is designed to reduce the possibility of deer getting hung up in it (as happens frequently in barbed wire fences). AGFD brought enough water to fill the tanks about 1/3 full before we left. This pic shows the truck in the background putting water into the system. Group photo! I would like to thank AGFD for their committment to these types of projects. AGFD has a dedicated crew of men that go around building these water catchments year-round. It's hard work and most of the guys on the crew have been doing it for 15+ years. They are fun guys to hang around the campfire with and they are very hard workers dedicated to making sure these projects are done right. These projects are funded with money rasied by sportsmen's groups at their banquets through sale of auction tags. Many thanks to Ben Brochu for inviting us out to help on this and other projects. Ben always cooks a dinner for us and this year it was some amazingly good posole!! Thank you Ben!! We had lots of CouesWhitetail.com forum members (JimmyC and his son, AZtradad, Gr8WhiteJr, TJhunt2, CMC, Elkhunter1, Hunting2gether (husband and wife), Gotcoues...and if I missed any, please help me out by mentioning them in your post) out there helping and it was great to see that! Forum member cmc has posted a ton more photos about this project on his website (AZ Sportsman's Journal) for those that want to see more about the construction phases of the project. CMC dedicates a ton of his time (including using his vacation days for these projects) to these projects and I really appreciate that he does that. http://www.azsj.org/forums/showthread.php?t=20882 Finished product:

Wow, especially tough hike for the smaller of your two dogs! Glad you made it out ok.

Congratulations!

Awesome elk! Nice job tracking him...

AWESOME!! thx for all the time you put into making that video. Wow!

Runningbird, do you get the mass emails that I send out to forum members periodically? When this whole mess started I mass emailed the entire forum so that people became aware of it. That's usually what I do on important topics so that people don't miss them. I send out information about whats going and links to the related posts. These mass emails are not just for political stuff but also some general "what's going on" type emails to let people know about habitat projects or other events going on. If you (or anyone else here) is not receiving those emails, please click on your name in the upper right of the forum and look for My Settings. Click on that and go to Notification Options and then click the box to allow the forum admin to send you updates. I will be sending out a mass email about the meeting on the 22nd in the hopes of getting more people involved and informed.

Mark, Isn't the political discussion section of the forum the place where people look to get updated on this bill? Seems to me like it's best to keep all the bill related info here so people know where to find it. Or maybe I am not understanding what you are asking. Amanda

thx for the info Clay!

Thanks for the recipe and idea!

Yes, a couple of examples come to mind. 1- an employer that has collectively bargained a contract. A contract that was negotiated by both parties, not just crammed down the employers throat by a union. That means it was agreed upon by both parties. 2- a federal employer that provides health insurance for federal employees is my second example. Thanks. I was actually thinking more about how it originally came to be that employers are expected to pay for insurance. Was that largely because of unions?

Hey Bill (or anyone else who might know), Do you know how long beaver have been in Bonita Creek? Were they there all along or are they the result of some transplants somewhere else? oh and the whitetails we saw were down in the creek in case you were wondering. Amanda

Thanks for the kind words TJ!! I am always an advocate of focusing on the positive. But I certainly think this issue is way too important to just let it be for now. But surely we can find a way to unite against the bill AND come together to find solutions to the problems that wildlife and hunting is facing. Perhaps the meeting on the 22nd at AGFD will be a great start toward that. As I understand it, the meeting is intended to get people to focus on ways of uniting sportsmen. I hope as many of you as possible will be attending that meeting.

Interesting question db...i never thought about that....anyone know the history of the way employers provide insurance ?

Just talked to Jim White and he said they got 3 feet of new snow at his house! Wow!

Raghorn, thanks for sharing those...that's cool stuff!

Wow!

We actually didn't hear a lot of owls...perhaps a little too early for a lot of calling. We did hear Western Screech Owls and Great Horned Owls and I found sign in that slot canyon that I think is from Barn Owls. I expected to hear more species of owls and more individuals. We will be going back again in a few weeks probably and maybe there will be more calling then.

Wow, that's quite a haul!! Congrats!

As I posted earlier in this thread and as Jim explained again, this whole debate has gotten out of hand due to a lack of moderation. We are going to take a harder line on moderating in an effort to bring some civility back to the forum. No one is asking you to be a fence rider, just keep the language civil please. I know everyone here is perfectly capable of getting their point across without swearing or slanderous comments.

So Jeff, what kind of tool do you use to cut out those shapes in the antler?

For real???