With snow melting and seasons turning to spring local wildlife federations are putting a close on 2017.
The Watson – Englefeld Wildlife Federation was the latest to host their annual banquet on April 7.
This year’s banquet featured 230 diners, from a club that toted a 2017 membership total of 256, says president Trevor Athmer.
The banquet, which featured a dinner, awards night, silent auction, and live auction is an important part of the federation’s year, said Athmer because it is one of their largest fundraisers.
“The purpose of our fundraising is to preserve wildlife habitat in Saskatchewan… Our club, for our members, we have a 3-D archery course, we have a certified gun range and we are in the initial stages of building a trout pond in Watson for our members also.”
Having items available for both live and silent auction, was great says Athmer, who noted without the support there would not be a club.
“Even the volunteer time is huge. It takes a lot of volunteers, a lot of time. Everything is volunteer.”
Athmer said the money raised from this year has been earmarked for their trout pond.
The trout pond will be used in conjunction with both the school and Fish in Schools (FinS) Program.
The FinS Program sees fish tanks installed into classrooms in the schools, with Athmer noting the goal is to get one in both the Englefeld and Watson schools.
Once the fish tanks are installed, classes are given trout eggs, and those eggs are hatched and grown into a fry, where they are released into the trout pond.
Athmer noted the trout pond, as well as the 3-D archery range, and gun range are important aspects of the federation, not so much for the adults, but for the children.
“It’s to get youth involved in the outdoors aspect of it. It’s to get them off the couch and get them doing something outdoorsy.”
The awards part of the evening saw hunters and anglers awarded with engraved flashlights.
The flashlights were a new addition this year.
Last year the club handed out engraved knives, moving away from the traditional plaques.
Athmer noted they plan on changing it again next year to keep the awards fresh.
“Historically it used to be plaques. So you go to some people’s place’s and they’ve got 40 plaques stacked in the basement so now it’s just something that they can use.”
The kids love the awards, says Athmer because they like going up to get the trophy that gets handed out with the award.
For the adults, it is much more about being entered provincially, said Athmer, who noted a number of their members were acknowledged by the provincial wildlife federation.
With a number of these animals taken locally, Athmer noted it is a great representation of the work the wildlife federation is doing in terms of animal preservation.
“Lots of these animals or fish are taken locally so it shows… that maybe we are taking some small steps to preserve habitat in the area.”
Athmer would like to thank everyone who helped out in any way during the banquet.
