S P I K E C A M. Dates to Remember. April PIONEER CHAPTER PO Box 673, Aurora, OR. Pioneer Chapter Monthly Meeting. If It Looks Like A Duck...

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1 PIONEER CHAPTER PO Box 673, Aurora, OR Published Monthly Volume S P I K E C A M P Dates to Remember Pioneer Chapter Monthly Meeting April 6th 7:00 PM Canby Rod & Gun Club Canby Portland Gun & Knife Show April 16th 17th Portland Expo Center Portland Canby Gun & Knife Show April 23rd 24th Portland Expo Center Portland Pioneer Chapter Board Meeting April 27th 7:00PM TA Truck Stop Aurora, Youth Day April 30th 9:00AM - 2:00PM Canby Rod & Gun Club Canby Next Month Pioneer Chapter Monthly Meeting May 4th 7:00 PM Canby Rod & Gun Club. Canby Adopt-A-Highway May 7th 7:00AM Meet at Carus Road and Highway 213. Adopt-A-Guzzler May 14th 8:00AM Meet at Jake's Diner in Bend for breakfast April 2016 If It Looks Like A Duck.... Sometimes when you see a duck serenely bobbing in the river--looking like it has no worries, cares, or concerns-- you might mistakenly conclude that it is experiencing no stress and is expending very little effort. What we often fail to consider is what is going on below the surface: it might be paddling like crazy just to keep from losing its place. During our 20th banquet, I am sure that all that many people saw was a duck gently floating on the river. A huge thank you to all of you ducks that were paddling furiously beneath the surface to ensure that we not only were saved from being swept away by the torrent, but that we were able to make great headway in the pursuit of our goals. One of my recurring nightmares is that somebody shoots one or more of our ducks. The next time that you see one of the many things that go awry or fail to meet the expectations that you or someone else has during the preparation for and execution of the banquet, please choose to focus on all of the things that go right. And, most importantly, DO NOT SHOOT THE DUCKS! There is no open season. I saw some things this year that I feel could stand some improvement. So, I am going to become more involved and become part of the solution. Would you please join me in the river. I will do all that I can to make certain that if any shots are fired, that I will take the hits. Bill Park Articles and opinions expressed in this newsletter are not necessarily the opinions of the Oregon Hunters Association

2 MEMBERSHIP DRIVE RAFFLE WINNER To boost our numbers we are having a membership drive at our May chapter meeting. You are encouraged to bring a prospective member for a short program explaining club activities and membership benefits. Each member and guest will receive a door prize. Any new member who joins and pays dues that night will be entered into a drawing for a Bushnell Rangefinder. Please be thinking of those who you might invite. OHA IN OUR COMMUNITY March 19-20: Expo Center Knife & Gun Show: Six members staffed our booth at this 2 day show. We signed up new members sold tickets on our current Rifle/Handgun Raffle and talked to the public about OHA. March 19: Adopt-A-Hiway: Seven members cleaned our pick-up area from Carus Road to Union Hall Road on Highway 213. Thanks to all who volunteered their time for the March projects. Our projects will start to increase now with spring here, so we continue to need your help. We have all types of incentives to get people to help. If you re not sure and you would like to help, we will put you with someone to show you the ropes. If you are interested, then come to a monthly meeting at the gun club or call Rich Steuer at (503) or Dick Crawford at (503) Ken Bepple was the winner of our winners choice raffle. His ticket was drawn at the NW Sportsman's Show February 14. Congratulations Ken! And thank you all for your support. Ken purchased the winning ticket at the Canby Gun Show. He selected the Browning with 3x9 Leupold scope. Happy Hunting. THANKS FOR THE SUPPORT CHAPTER ELECTIONS We will be holding chapter election at our May meeting. We will be taking nominations this month for the open positions: President, Secretary and three Board Positions. If you would like to run for one of these positions make sure to get your name in at the April meeting. After many years at the helm as head cook and bottle washer at our banquets, Rhondi Myra is handing over the reigns to the next generation. Thanks Rhondi for your outstanding support.

3 OREGON HUNTER S ASSOCIATION PIONEER CHAPTER SHOTGUN AND ARCHERY YOUTH DAY AT CANBY ROD AND GUN CLUB SaturdayApril30, am -2pm 20 Gauge Archery 410 for Beginners Open to b oysa nd girlsa ges8 to S. Molalla Forest Rd., Canby, Oregon **ACTIVITIES** Clay Target Shooting-Beginning Archery 20 Gauge Youth Shotgun, Raffle Door Prizes and Hamburger & Hotdog Lunch The shooting range will be open for youths interested in clay target shooting with shotguns. All youth shooters are required to attend orientation/instruction class before shooting. Eye and ear protection is required at all times for shooters and will be provided along with shotgun and shells. Coaches will be present for one-on-one shooting instruction and safety. A parent or legal guardian must be present. Lunch is provided in the $10.00 youth range fee. BSA Shotgun Merit Badge instruction for Boy Scouts ($15.00-Includes Lunch) Lunch is available for attendees or spectators for just $5.00 per person Pre-registration is requested-limited Entry on Event Day To register or for more information contact: Duane Johnson Application available at: * WORKING FOR WILDLIFE HABITAT & HUNTING RIGHTS *

4 OHA TRACKER APRIL 2016 Wolf delisting, poaching penalties signed into law Applegate March 2016, Duane Dungannon Oregon Governor Kate Brown on March 15 signed into law two legislative bills that will ratify the delisting of wolves in Oregon and increase penalties for poaching. HB 4040 Wolf Delisting Bill House Bill 4040A ratifies into statute the recent decision by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission to remove wolves from the state s threatened and endangered list in accordance with Oregon s Wolf Conservation Plan. Three environmental groups had filed suit against the Commission s action, but the new law will protect and uphold the Commission s decision. OHA wants to thank the legislature for passing this important bill and Governor Brown for signing it into law, said OHA Conservation Director Jim Akenson. This new law will allow the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife more options for management of Oregon s growing wolf population moving forward. In its letter urging Governor Brown to sign the bill, OHA underlined the need to continue with the Oregon Wolf Conservation Plan designed to manage Oregon s wolf population. OHA emphasized the need to get to phase three of the plan and the importance of following the direction of the wolf plan, which was developed with buy-in from many diverse stakeholders. In addition, OHA noted that, contrary to some claims, delisting does not remove protections for Oregon wolves, which now number greater than 110 in the state and are growing at a 36-percent rate annually. HB 4046 Unlawful Take Penalties Governor Brown also signed into law House Bill 4046, which increases penalties for deliberate acts of unlawfully taking or killing certain game wildlife, such as killing an animal out of season, without a license or with a prohibited weapon or in a prohibited manner. Killing a protected species, exceeding a bag limit or killing an animal while trespassing also can be considered poaching. OHA is adamantly opposed to poaching, said Akenson. As the administrator of the Turn In Poachers (TIP) Despite the penalties currently in place, poaching continues to run rampant in Oregon. program that annually pays more than $13,000 to informants in poaching cases, OHA has been a leader in the fight against poaching for more than three decades. However, despite the penalties currently in place, poaching continues to run rampant in Oregon. OHA supports HB 4046B as it increases penalties to create a deterrent to these crimes. HB 4046B gives law enforcement and our court system additional tools to address poaching of Oregon wildlife and will help deter this illegal activity by increasing the financial and criminal penalties for violating the illegal take laws. OHA asked that language be added to the bill to draw a distinction between accidental harvest and deliberate acts of poaching. Al Elkins, OHA Lobbyist OHA speaks on wolf panel The Oregon Hunters Association appeared before the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission at the March Commission meeting in Salem to participate in a review of the Oregon Wolf Conservation Plan. OHA was a member of a panel along with representatives from the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Oregon Cattlemen s Association and the Oregon Farm Bureau. Also participating in the discussion was a panel made up of representatives from Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, and Oregon Wild. Three of these groups filed a court challenge to overturn the Commission s recent decision to delist wolves in Oregon. Once the wolf population objectives have been exceeded, the next round of planning will need to address hunting as a management tool, since wolves are considered a special-status mammal within the game mammal category, OHA Conservation Director Jim Akenson said during his presentation before the Commission. Al Elkins, OHA Lobbyist See this week s Hunting Headlines at

5 OUTDOOR OUTLOOK APRIL 1 Spring bear season opens in West Blue Mountains and Western Oregon hunt areas APRIL 2 Youth turkey clinic, ; OHA chapter banquets: Baker County Lake County APRIL 9-10 Statewide youth spring turkey hunt APRIL 15 Harvest reporting deadline, winter tags; Deadline for ballots in OHA state elections; Spring bear opens, most of eastern Oregon; Spring turkey season opens APRIL 16 OHA chapter banquet: Mid-Willamette APRIL 23 OHA chapter banquets: Klamath Tioga APRIL 30 OHA chapter banquet: Tualatin Valley ; OHA Pioneer Chapter Youth Day, MAY 6-7 OHA Capitol Chapter weekend powerline project; MAY 7 OHA Redmond Chapter Bridge Creek weekend project ; OHA Bend juniper cutting ; Lake County guzzler project MAY 14 OHA Tillamook banquet ; OHA chapter youth events: Rogue Valley Tioga OHA chapter projects: Tualatin Vly Tillamook Forest ; OHA Klamath weekend Hart Mountain ; OHA Emerald Valley weekend Pine Grass OHA weighs in on wolves, wilderness and wildlife OHA s recent conservation agenda has been dominated by wolves, wilderness and wildlife. February and March were busy again on the wolf front with a bill brought before the Legislature to ratify the wolf delisting decision made by the Fish and Wildlife Commission in November. OHA actively supported HB4040, which passed the House and Senate, and was signed by the Governor on March 15. OHA presented oral testimony at every opportunity and rallied members to send letters of support. The next step with wolves is the fiveyear Wolf Plan revision process. OHA was invited to participate in a panel presentation to the Fish and Wildlife Commission on March 18 to express our concerns and recommended actions for Phase III of the pending plan, which is the management phase. OHA teamed with the Oregon Cattlemen s Association, Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, and the Oregon Farm Bureau. We each addressed different aspects but also blended our concerns. OHA stated a need for wolf cap (maximum) numbers, and that they should be tied to game species management objective numbers and combined with the occurrence of livestock depredation. OHA proposed that this management language connect hunting to ease problems in chronic livestock depredation areas. Public Land Designations (((( Land designation issues are burning like wildfires across the state, from the proposed Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument south of Ontario (2.5 million acres with 2.0 million of designated wilderness), to the proposed Ochoco National Recreation Area east of Prineville (312,000 acres total with 25,700 of proposed wilderness), to a possible Crater Lake Wilderness, with 500,000 acres proposed surrounding Crater Lake National Park, and most recently, a proposed 500,000-acre protected area called Douglas Fir National Monument which includes the Santiam River watershed and parts of Linn and Marion Counties along the west side of the Cascades. The groups pushing these proposals are trying to capitalize on the political moment when the out-going president can use the American Antiquities Act of 1906 to make designations on federal lands. From the OHA perspective, and in accord with our adopted position statements, there are undoubtedly, portions of these areas that are worthy of wilderness consideration. Our issue is the sheer magnitude taking a broad-brush approach to a complex issue. In the Owyhee, OHA has teamed with other sportsmen s groups to present a much more reasonable alternative expressed in a joint letter. These views are being presented to state and federal lawmakers. The focus of this letter is to keep the Owyhee country as close to the way it is now as possible, and primarily in a multiple-use framework. Another big consideration in any of these places is the will of local residents. The Malheur County Court asked voters what they thought of a National Monument designation in Owyhee, and 90 percent expressed opposition, with over 50 percent of the registered voters in that county participating. OHA will continue to be an informed and wise voice that considers the best interests of hunting and other recreational opportunities for our membership. Big Game Management Objectives On the wildlife front, OHA representatives were recently invited to participate on deer and elk management objective review committees hosted by ODFW district biologists. The recommendations made by OHA reps were either to maintain what we have now for numbers and bull-to-cow ratios or increase them. For deer it was generally a case of setting them high, with hopes of getting back up to those better numbers that we saw in past years. OHA also addressed the problem of elk favoring private property. OHA is heading up a pilot project in the Chesnimnus Unit to try to remedy, or at least lessen, this distribution problem. This effort aims to improve elk hunting on public land. There might be some trade-offs with access versus opportunity, but we believe this can be accomplished in a reasonable fashion. The final product from these discussions will be presented to the Commission. Jim Akenson, OHA Conservation Director i

6 OHA PIONEER CHAPTER PO Box 673 Aurora, Oregon Nonprofit US Postage PAID Portland, OR PermitNo2343 ELECTRONIC SERVICE REQUESTED CHAPTER OFFICERS BOARD MEMBERS President Bill Park Ph Buck Teasley Ph Vice Pres Tim Sowa Ph Jerry Holbrook Ph Secretary Terry Jones Ph Duane Johnson Ph Treasurer Brian Andrews Ph Richard Crawford Ph Steve Hess Ph David Scott Ph Banquet Coordinator David Scott Ph Newsletter Editor Gary Chandler Ph His or Her's Choice COMBINATION RAFFLE Henry Big Boy.45 Long Colt and Remington and Cimarron.45 Long Colt with a box of Ammo Or Kimber Micro Raptor 380ACP Raffle tickets are $5.00 each. Drawing to be held September 25, 2016 at the Site in Days