The folks at Coosa Valley TU hope that all your holiday happenings are joyous and that all your wishes come true.
Almost everything that TU has hoped for this past year has happened for us.
We had a great chili cook off and raised money to continue our endowments at the University of Georgia.
There was still enough for us to continue our support of the Arrowhead Outdoor Education Center as well as donating money to the Rome-Floyd County E.C.O. River Education Center for a cold water display.
We also were able to do several hands-on projects in our Northwest Georgia streams which not only helped the fish, but also improved the outdoor experience for campers, picnickers and anglers.
One thing that we are very grateful for is that we have found a new meeting place and that is at the ECO center.
TU has formed a partnership with the ECO center that we hope will last for many years. The facility has room enough for us to have the Trout Expo.
The displays, aquariums and exhibits add greatly and the facility has the electronic mediums we need to give great presentations at our monthly meetings.
There is some good news for the trout anglers. The DNR received a gift from the federal hatchery and has passed that gift on to our anglers who fish the Toccoa River.
I promised not to disclose actual numbers.
But I can tell you that many more than a hundred large brood trout were stocked above the dam and below the dam on the Toccoa.
The largest number went downstream of the dam and the remainders were stocked in the delayed harvest area.
These fish are all in the three pound and up category and along with these rainbows, the river also was stocked with Brook trout.
If you want to catch some big trout they are about an hour and a half from Rome. Catch to keep below the dam and catch and release above the dam until May 15.
Something special for female outdoor enthusiasts
Trout Unlimited is not a male only organization but has a number of female members who are active within chapters and on the national level as well. Georgia alone has had at least 3 chapters lead by women.
According to Beverly Smith, Director of Volunteer Operations at TU national about 6.4 percent of the TU members are female and 15 to 20 percent of councils and chapters have women in leadership positions. Roughly 34 percent of the TU staff based out of Washington is female.
TU knows that most women love and care about nature and want our streams and rivers to stay healthy and beautiful and would probably join TU if they were not concerned about being one of the few females in a room full of grumpy old men. TU has decided to give a gift of FREE MEMBERSHIP to all first time female members joining. This offer is for a limited time, yet the exact cut off date has not been set.
I know many women who love to fish, canoe, hike the forests and just enjoy being in the out of doors.
Females have outnumbered males in North America for many years now and TU wants to increase its female members and try and bring more of a balance to its membership.
Not all the work that TU does involves moving logs & boulders in streams and there are many instances where a woman can out perform a man on things the our chapter need to do. I have even seen women at our workdays that could not only keep up with our male members, but actually out perform some driving steel re-bar.
The Coosa Valley TU meetings almost always have females in attendance, but we want to see more in the future.
You can go online at https://www.tumembership.org/women and sign up to be a TU member.
Whether you are female or male Trout Unlimited wants to grow. At this time, new member females are free and new males are half price.
TU Christmas Meeting
This year’s Christmas meeting will be at the Rome ECO Center at Ridge Ferry Park on Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
It is being catered by Bella Roma and there is a $10 charge per person attending. Members and guests will all be participating in “Dirty Santa” gift swap so bring a WRAPPED gift in the $15 to $25 range.
There will also be two fly rods that will be drawn for by members only and a limited edition print will be auctioned off. This meeting requires an RSVP so contact Ronny Cooper 706-767-0774 or email him roncoop@comcast.net.
Post a Comment