Okanogan Fires Benefit Fundraiser

[MuleDeer]

Will post more info as we get it, but here are the basics:
We are having a benefit dinner to raise money for the Carlton Complex Fires recovery, on November 22nd, at The Barn in Winthrop.  100% of the proceeds will go towards winter feeding (if needed), habitat restoration, and some infrastructure if needed (deer fences lost, etc).
This event will be similar to a regular dinner event, with a prime rib dinner, a small live auction, a silent auction, and various raffle games, including a "gun/optics board", where we will give away a number of firearms and optics throughout the night, and also possibly some live entertainment.  Will be a fun night, with a very worthy cause that we'll be working on over the next several years.
We're looking for great donations for the auction (trips, hunts, fishing, big ticket items, etc), and I know some on here were interested in donating $$ for the work there.  If you'd like to donate, or get info on attending the event, get in touch with me and I will get you taken care of.  Contact below, or through this post.
Hope to see some of you there!

Dan McKinley
509-995-0819
dan@muledeer.org

[Alchase]

Great Idea!
Can I make a suggestion, have something out this weekend during the opener, so people who are in town that weekend as well can donate?

[ryan13]

 

[MuleDeer]

We'll be getting posters up starting this Friday with some info and contact numbers on them.  If anyone on here is around Spokane and heading that way, let me know if you'd like a few posters to hang up while you make your trips to town.  We're hoping to get posters in every town we can inside Okanogan County, from Oroville down to Brewster, Bridgeport, and everywhere else.  Thanks for the comment!

[MuleDeer]

Anyone have ideas of local businesses that would be good locations for posters for this event?  I know some in the county, but I'm sure some of you know spots that I'm not aware of.  Help with how we get the word out for this benefit dinner will help make all the difference!  Thanks in advance, and good luck this fall!

[Alchase]

I do not know the owners or their policy's but I would ask Hank's in Twisp and either Red Apple or the grocery store in town for Winthrop?

[Alchase]

Or outside Three Fingered Jack's?

[MuleDeer]

Thanks.  Hank's is providing dinner, and his son Jackson is our point of contact in the area, so they are definitely supporting the effort.  We'll check with the others you mentioned, and get some posters up to promote.

[bobcat]

Who is going to this? It's just over a week away!

[scottcrb]

hey dan i work for a beer company called Mntucky Cold Snacks im willing to donate a bunch of beer to your fundraiser if we can make the connection work. you can have the beer and sell it at your banquet and keep all of the profits. our distributor is located in kent. do you know what your attendance is looking like or how much you would need? ill have to find out how to get it to you and make sure we have enough stock on hand . let me know .
www.montuckycoldsnacks.com

[Boss .300 winmag]

tagging

[mkcj]

Will be a good event for a good cause.

[scottcrb]

just a bump to keep the word going

[MuleDeer]

The dinner on the 22nd was a great success, and we had about 110 people there for a good time and to help our Mule Deer in Okanogan County.  Gave away 6 guns, plenty of optics, had a great Prime Rib dinner, and raised just over $11,000 to help the deer during this winter and going forward.  Thanks for spreading the word and helping to get people there.
If anyone still wants to help by making a donation to help out there, let me know and I will get you in touch with the right person who is administering the check book.  Thanks again, and let's hope for mild weather to help out!

[huntnphool]

Thanks again, and let's hope for mild weather to help out!

 So WDFW issues 1000+ additional doe tags, based on what..........Farmers Almanac prediction of devistating winter?........or was it WDFW collective expert winter speculation?

 Now we are throwing benefit dinners, asking those same people that took part in the extended Methow "save the herd by slaughtering does before they starve" season, to empty their wallets even before that same doe slaughter season has ended. While at the same time, "hoping for a mild winter" which would make this entire "preventative" slaughter that much more of a joke.

 I'm all for helping the herd out, but surely you have to see the conflict here.

[MtnMuley]

Exactly. I wonder how many bucks are getting killed with the 1900 antlerless tags. There was a very mature buck killed yesterday there with one of the 2nd deer tags. I wonder how many times this mistake has been made?

[huntnphool]

Exactly. I wonder how many bucks are getting killed with the 1900 antlerless tags. There was a very mature buck killed yesterday there with one of the 2nd deer tags. I wonder how many times this mistake has been made?

 "Mistake"?

 Someone mistakenly killed a mature buck, while hunting for a doe, with his/her second deer tag?............I think not!

[MuleDeer]

huntnphool, I don't see any conflict with our annual fundraisers and what WDFW is doing at all.  We don't make their rules or decisions, but we DO raise money to improve habitat whenever and wherever we can.  How is it a conflict that we have a dinner and use the money earned to improve habitat?  As a hunter I don't agree with the decisions they made either, but does that mean I shouldn't do what I can to help make things better?
If you have questions about our motives as MDF, read our mission statement.  There is nothing hidden, we are not in cahoots with any agency..sometimes we have to do our work IN SPITE of agency ruiles or decisions.  But we don't quit working for Mule Deer.  That is our goal, plain and simple.  Let me know if I can answer any questions for you, and I'd be happy to.  If talking in person would be better, let me know when and where and I'm happy to meet you there.  Happy New Year

[MtnMuley]

  As a hunter I don't agree with the decisions they made either

I watched you stand up in a meeting, introduce yourself and who you represented, and then take sides with WDFW on issuing the antlerless tags with hopes of thinning out the local resident deer that weren't as "healthy" as the migrating deer. The question brought up twice asking why issuing the tags before a problem presented itself never got answered by WDFW. It was asked twice.  As a hunter, and certainly in the position you are in, I would have felt you would have been better off addressing that question for the third time, rather than say it was smart to kill a bunch of the local deer before there ever was a problem.

[MuleDeer]

Read back to my answer to this same question to you quite a few weeks ago, and you'll see my explanation.  If you can't find it, here it is again.  I spoke with Scott Fitkin, Phil Anderson and a few other agency guys before the meeting.  The answer they gave me for the tags is the same one I passed on as THEIR reasoning, not mine.  Scott was being bombarded as they all were, and I felt he wasn't giving the clear answer that he gave me, so I stood up and offered the reasoning that they (he) provided.  I wasn't taking their side or defending them; I was giving the answer that I was given, because Scott wasn't giving it.  Was it biologically the best decision?  Maybe, maybe not.  If the tags weren't issued, we had a hard winter, and 3000+ deer died of starvation, they would have made the wrong decision.  That's a lot of ifs.  Right or wrong, they have to make decisions that we won't always like. 
I didn't say, as a representative of any group, I don't agree with their decision.  I said as a hunter I don't agree.  One of the biggest problems that I've expressed to Phil Anderson, Jerry Nelson and many others, is that we do too much management in this state by initiative and not by biology.  They made a decision based on biology.  It wasn't popular, no doubt.  But do we want to keep encouraging WDFW to manage by public opinion, or trust the biologists to manage according to biology?  We don't have to agree with them, but that doesn't make them wrong.

[MuleDeer]

For those that don't see it as a "conflict of interest" to help, despite the decisions WDFW has made, here is a chance to get some habitat restoration work done for the mule deer of Okanogan County.  Please spread this flyer around and encourage folks to put together project proposals, even if they think it may already be in the works from other people or agencies.
A couple notes: we will not fund orchard fencing, as it would keep deer away from browse, which would be directly in conflict with the best interests of the deer, and, it looks like the majority of our funding may be directed towards restoration, mainly planting shrub plugs over the next year.  Thanks for your input.

[huntnphool]

For those that don't see it as a "conflict of interest" to help, despite the decisions WDFW has made, here is a chance to get some habitat restoration work done for the mule deer of Okanogan County.  Please spread this flyer around and encourage folks to put together project proposals, even if they think it may already be in the works from other people or agencies.
A couple notes: we will not fund orchard fencing, as it would keep deer away from browse, which would be directly in conflict with the best interests of the deer, and, it looks like the majority of our funding may be directed towards restoration, mainly planting shrub plugs over the next year.  Thanks for your input.

 Will the restoration be done by state workers or will volunteers be utilized?

 I'd bet you could get a lot of hunters to gather, be briefed on directions and locations, and get a lot of plugs planted in very short order.

[MuleDeer]

For those that don't see it as a "conflict of interest" to help, despite the decisions WDFW has made, here is a chance to get some habitat restoration work done for the mule deer of Okanogan County.  Please spread this flyer around and encourage folks to put together project proposals, even if they think it may already be in the works from other people or agencies.
A couple notes: we will not fund orchard fencing, as it would keep deer away from browse, which would be directly in conflict with the best interests of the deer, and, it looks like the majority of our funding may be directed towards restoration, mainly planting shrub plugs over the next year.  Thanks for your input.

 Will the restoration be done by state workers or will volunteers be utilized?

 I'd bet you could get a lot of hunters to gather, be briefed on directions and locations, and get a lot of plugs planted in very short order.

Manpower will be dictated by the project, but it is very seldom when we are not allowed to provide spots for volunteers.  Especially with planting projects (plugs, in particular), time and man-hours are usually the hardest thing to come by.  We will definitely be looking for volunteers to help with projects!
For anyone wanting to be on a list and be notified of upcoming projects, please send me a PM or email at dan@muledeer.org, and give me your email address.  I can then put out an email to those of you on the list, and you can let us know if you are available on that day or days.  Thanks!



(fixed your post)