A busy time of year

This time of the year always seems to be busy. The holidays are a busy time just because, but a lot of other things are scheduled this time of year too.

I’ve been an active Hunter Education instructor for over twenty years now. Every year, the HIT (hunter information and training) program hosts a planning, dinner, and instructor meeting where information is passed on to the attending instructors, awards are handed out for services rendered, and the next year’s schedule of classes is developed with instructors signing up to teach those classes. This year’s instructor meeting is scheduled for Nov. 30th at the Grouse Ridge Shooting Club. I’m planning to be there, weather permitting.

As a member of the Matanuska Susitna Borough Fish and Wildlife Commission (MSBFWC), I volunteered with two other members to help develop an information booklet explaining our concerns with fisheries here in the Northern District. We have met three times already and have future meetings scheduled at least once a week through the middle of December. This booklet is an integral submission during the Board of Fisheries upcoming Upper Cook Inlet meeting scheduled to be held in Anchorage in Feb/March of 2024.

We have been working closely with our borough liaison, Maija DiSalvo, on this project and, if truth be told, Maija has done the bulk of the formatting, editing, and “structural” work for the booklet while the three commissioners provide the information contained therein.

We also use this booklet when dealing with the legislature and other federal and state resource management agencies, as well as the general public. When finished, the booklet will be posted on the Mat-Su Borough, MSBFWC website if you want to learn a little more about the condition of our Northern District fisheries.

I’ve been a member and Range Safety Officer at the Upper Susitna Shooters Association (USSA) for the past twenty years. I’ve actively worked as an RSO there except for the past couple of years because of surgeries and dealing with storm damage to an outbuilding and vehicles. The Board of Directors was kind enough to vote me into a lifetime membership and RSO status because of my time spent at the range.

The USSA is hosting a RSO banquet in Talkeetna on Dec 2nd to thank the RSOs’ for all their efforts. Along with a great dinner, awards and drawings will be held, but you RSOs must be present to win. I don’t know a lot of the guys, but I’ve always had fun at the meetings.

As Andy Couch mentioned in his column, the MSBFWC will be hosting a public meeting with ADF&G in the back of the Borough Assembly chambers on Dec 7th. This has become an annual meeting where the commission and the public have a chance to interact with both the Commercial and Sport Fish Divisions of ADF&G to learn their take on how the past fishing season was managed.

These meetings have been informative and usually result in some interesting discussions with the department about population trends and management strategies, to mention a couple of items. ADF&G Commissioner Doug Vincent-Lang will be attending the ADF&G Special Meeting next week to talk about the EEZ issues in Cook Inlet, where the feds have taken over fisheries management.

The 2023 McKinley Mountain Men’s Annual Christmas Party will be held at Keith and Mary Mathis’s home on Dec 9th. I’ve attended several of these gatherings and enjoyed the food, the stories, and the comradery. Mary is a really good cook! Most of the folks are around my age so we have fun talking about stuff the younger generations don’t understand. After the dinner, the monthly club meeting is held followed by a fund-raising auction of donated items. The money raised is used to pay the next year’s club insurance premium.

The regular monthly meeting of the MSBFWC is scheduled for Dec 14th in the back of the Borough Assembly chambers also. This is a public meeting and folks are encouraged to attend. Among other things, the information booklet will be discussed and, hopefully, finalized. If you have interest in the Borough’s water body set back issues, what’s proposed to be happening in the Moose Range, or the potential Big Lake subdivision along Meadow Creek, you might want to attend or listen in on the internet connection.

It took a couple of days, but we’ve got our snowplow guy lined up and our driveway plowed. All the “warm” weather just makes getting in the driveway easier but sloppier!