Conservation Activity Plan For 2020
Your committee has a busy 2020 planned, and there’s lots of volunteer opportunity, which are also great opportunities to expand your circle of club friends!
In partnership with Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife:
One additional sign at Medical Lake that would include a frame. WDFW Region 1 is in favor of the
project and it needs approval by the Town of Medical Lake. The IEFFC board has to approve this project. If this project goes ahead we will need volunteers to help build the frame for the sign, install the sign in the frame and plant the sign in the ground out at the Medical Lake City Park.
Fin Clipping – Scheduled for September 28 and 29, 2020. We will need seven volunteers each day.
Bayley Lake
Amber Lake boat launch – Spread and compact an additional 12 yards of 5/8” minus crushed rock. Project is favored by WDFW. IEFFC board must approve this project. If this project goes ahead we will need four volunteers to spread and compact the crushed rock. Tentatively scheduled for April 13, 2020.
In partnership with the Little Pend Oreille Wildlife Refuge:
Clean out spawning channel and restore spawning bed gravel at Bayley Lake. Scheduled for September 26, 2020. We need eight volunteers. Usually four members bring their boats and after the work is done we go fishing.
Other
North Idaho Fly Casters may have a project that we could help out on. No details at this point, but most likely we would be asked to help out on a tree planting project.
As usual, other projects may present themselves as the year progresses. Stay tuned or contact Jerry or Jim if you’re interested.
Grande Ronde River Land Purchase
On Tuesday, January 28, the Wild Steelhead Coalition signed the papers to purchase an 8-acre parcel on the lower Grande Ronde River
from Lynn “Radar” Miller, thus paving the way for this land to remain
open to the public forever. Located near several very popular steelhead
fishing spots, public access to the river through this property has been
allowed for many years due to an easement arrangement between Mr.
Miller and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife
(WDFW). When Mr. Miller decided to sell his property, the Inland
Empire Fly Fishing Club (IEFFC) and the Wild Steelhead Coalition
(WSC) stepped in and worked out a deal whereby the WSC would purchase the land with charitable donations and then donate it to the
WDFW to manage and operate in perpetuity for public access.
Many IEFFC members made generous donations, as well as 13 regional clubs and organizations, and many members of the public. There
was wonderful regional support for this project which is so gratifying
since it will now remain available for everyone in the region and beyond to use. Josh Mills, WSC, was instrumental representing WSC throughout the process to insure its success. It would not have happened without him. I can’t thank Mark
Pinch enough for his guidance and hard work with the title company and others to keep us on track through a few real
estate “details” that he worked out for us. Of course, we were extremely lucky that the land owner, Radar Miller, was
more interested in seeing this property remain open to the public than turning the bigger profit he might have gotten if he
sold it to a private entity. 
Hanna Coles – Inaugural IEFFC Legacy Committee Scholarship Recipient
Hannah Coles was awarded the first IEFFC Legacy Committee Scholarship for the 2019-2020 Academic Year. The scholarship will be awarded annually to a worthy EWU student enrolled in the fisheries program. Below we have a response from Hannah.
To IEFFC: I am honored to have received the IEFFC Legacy Scholarship as it
Hannah Coles EWU
has helped pay for tuition
costs such as fees for my biology classes so that I am able to utilize resources for learning and research in my
classes. I was born in Anaconda, MT, moved to Spokane when I was 5-years-old, and have been here ever
since. I will be graduating from Eastern Washington University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology with an emphasis in Fisheries this coming Spring.
I have been working in the Fisheries Research Center at EWU under Dr.
Paul Spruell and Dr. Allan T Scholz. I am the student president of the
eastern Washington sub-unit of the American Fisheries Society WA-BC
Chapter. I am planning on attending graduate school to pursue a Master’s
Degree in Biology either at EWU or WSU. I worked for the Kalispel
Tribe Natural Resources Department this past summer as a Fisheries
Technician II on the removal of Brook Trout in Sullivan Creek in Pend
Oreille County WA. to help the native Westslope Cutthroat Trout populations. I hope to one day work as a bio-statistician, fish biologist, in resource management, or other similar positions in the Pacific NW for a
local tribe or state government. I hope work with others to preserve, conserve, and restore our fish populations so there are stable and thriving
populations for present and future generations to experience the sport of
fishing just as we have.