Hi Nutmeg Trout Members & Friends,
It’s been a while since we’ve been together. Hopefully, you and your families are all safe and the emotional and financial impact of Covid 19 have been manageable. Certainly, the boredom and isolation factors are hitting us all.
The Nutmeg Trout Board has not remained idle during these unprecedented times. While we had to postpone in-person conservation plans, meetings and outings your Board has been actively planning for our new normal age while it lasts so that we can continue to bring our members more of what they want.
To start with, keep an eye out for a newly renovated Nutmeg Trout Website. Thanks to the efforts of our Website Renovation Committee a fresher and more interactive website is in store for members this Fall. This is thanks to the volunteer efforts of the Committee Chair, Jerry Goldstein, and members, being John Kovach, Gian Morressi, and myself. The Committee is looking for a Nutmeg TU member to help with the renovation who is familiar with website development and is willing to volunteer their time in implementing the needed changes to bring into fruition our new website.
Our chapter continues to err on the side of caution and plans no in-person meetings, outings or conservation work planned. Once it is safe to emerge, we will have a lot to catch up on. In the meantime plans are in place for a great Fall speaker Program brought to you thanks to our Program Chair, John Kovach. Thanks to Covid-19 we successfully migrated our meetings to Zoom. This Fall we are planning exciting programs like stream entomology, a DEEP assessment of our rivers, exotic locations to fish and how to best fish there, rod building, and of course, more fly tying lessons. That’s just a taste of our Fall Meeting plans.
On the Conservation front Nutmeg Trout continues to remain active supporting protection of our waterways through TU’s legislative support endeavors and our local work monitoring our local waters with temperature loggers and direct interaction with local conservation group support. Thanks to the efforts of Mike Piquette we now have three water temperature loggers in the Mill River and two loggers in the Pequonnock River. This combined with the Redds information previously collected will go a long way to promote our conservation work. Thanks to the efforts of Gian Morresi, our Conservation chair, we submitted an Embrace a Stream Grant to TU for funds to develop a plan to bring the Mill River back close to the condition it might have been before the Merritt Parkway was built in 1938.
Our stockpile of collected Christmas trees await safer times when we can secure the trees to the banks of the Mill River along Congress Street. Once allowed we will reconvene our river side trash cleanups, and continue to remove invasive tree and plant species, while we plant needed trees to protect and expand fish habitats.
The Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program for 2021 is in flux. We must see how the new school year unfolds and whether teachers are receptive to bringing in and managing the tanks in their classrooms.
The TU Regional meeting is going to be rescheduled for the fall of 2021 in Connecticut. This will be a great opportunity to get involved and show off our waters to fellow TU anglers from throughout the Northeast. I attended the quarterly TU Connecticut Council meeting. Keep an eye out on the horizon for their ongoing plans.
We need to reelect officers. Currently the President and Secretary is Rich Rosen and the Vice President and Treasurer is Jerry Goldstein. If anyone is interested in nominating someone else for any of these positions, please let us know and we can add those names to the ballot. We will try to conduct a vote virtually in September.
There will be plenty of volunteer opportunities for one-off projects (i.e. delivering trout eggs to schools, picking up trash, anchoring trees, give a fly tying demo etc.) or you can take on a more active role on our board. We could use help with Treasury, Secretary, Communications, TIC, community outreach, Veterans, women, families, fundraising, and much more. Lead an area or be part of a subcommittee. Just send me an email if you are interested in discussing. Through our volunteers we grow.
Stay safe and stay connected,
Rich Rosen
rhrosen@aol.com
P.S.: If you are receiving spam that looks like it is from me asking for gift cards, please ignore it. It is not from me.
