If you have pictures taken on club fishouts, or your own fishing trips that you would like to submit, send them to me, Dougald Scott. The presentation will be in digital format. If your pictures are from a digital camera, attach them to an email, or save them on a CD. If they are prints or slides, mail them to me and I will scan them into digital format and return the prints or slides to you. My email is doscott@cruzio.com. My mailing address is 116 Allegro Drive, Santa Cruz 95060. DonŐt be shy, share your pictures with the club. - Dougald Scott
* The Dame Juliana Award
The Dame Juliana Award is bestowed upon the person who best exemplified our Club motto during the past year: To Promote, Educate and Enjoy the Sport of Fly Fishing. In the past the award has gone to members who have spent a lot of extra time and effort helping many other members in finding new places to fish, to refine their skills, or who developed and taught new methods and skills to the membership. You are encouraged to vote for a person who made a big difference in how much enjoyment you had in club activities in the last year. You may vote for more than one person, but do not vote more than once for a particular person. Cast your vote by writing the name of the person you select on a piece of paper, and placing it in the ballot box provided.
* Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project Fin Clipping - December 3rd
All of those thousands of juvenile steelhead and coho salmon that the MBS&TP puts into our local streams have to be fin clipped so they can be distinguished from wild fish. Since there are a lot of fish, a lot of volunteers are needed to do the clipping. This event is more like a party than work, and everyone has a lot of fun. Call the hatchery at 458-3095 or Larry Wolf at 688-4257 for more details.
* NCCFFF Hall of Fame Dinner - February 18th, 2006
This is the major fund raising event for the conservation programs sponsored by NCCFFF and all club members are encouraged to come. It coincides with the San Rafael Fly Fishing Show at the Marin County Civic Center. As in past years the dinner will be held at the Marin Rod & Gun Club and include great food, a raffle, a silent auction, and a live auction. This year Marty Seldon will be inducted into the Hall of Fame. Visit the NCCFFF website for more details (www.nccfff.org).
* Some Fear a Vast Sell-Off of U.S. Land Excerpted from the LA Times
A budget bill that the House of Representatives is expected to vote on in the next few weeks would force the federal government to put "For Sale" signs on public recreation lands in California and the West, including national forest holdings throughout the Sierra Nevada and remote parts of the Mojave Desert. Slipped quietly into a massive bill late last month by Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy), the provision has been largely overlooked.
The bill would lift an 11-year-old moratorium on the patenting - or sale - of federal lands to mining companies for a fraction of their mineral worth. While the patent fees would rise from $2.50 or $5 an acre to $1,000, the price would continue to exclude the mineral worth, which can amount to billions of dollars. The proposal orders the Interior Department to sell land adjacent to mining claims for "economic development." Under the provision, legal experts say anyone would be able to stake a new claim on those neighboring parcels, do some survey work and, without having to prove a valuable mineral discovery, purchase the land for as little as $1,000 an acre. Former Interior officials say the measure would open the door to the widespread privatization of federal lands used by millions of people for hiking, hunting, and off-road driving.