Seattle Sportsmen's Convention & Fundraiser -- February 29, 2020 in Lynnwood

[MamaBear]

Looking for ways to make a difference for wildlife conservation right here in Washington?  Time for a fun night out with friends? Join us on February 29 at the Lynnwood Convention Center for the 20th annual Seattle Sportsmen's Convention. The event includes a live auction, 125+ item silent auction, games and raffles! Doors open at 2pm, dinner at 6pm, followed by our live auction and raffle drawings.

Our goal is to raise in excess of $250,000 for local projects such as Washington State Mountain Goat Surveys, Blacktail Deer Hair Loss Studies, Hunters for the Hungry donations, funding of hunts and fishing trips for veterans, youth outdoor and educational programs, Mountain Goat relocation, and Pronghorn Antelope re-introduction into eastern Washington. 

A sneak peek of what you can expect at the event:

• meet our Master of Ceremonies and guest speaker, Clint Walker (Founder of FALKOR Defense and NEMO Arms)
• more than 25 firearms available to win
• 20/20 Vision raffle: Swarovski STX-95 with stay-on case, Manfrotto XPRO Fluid Two-Way tripod head, and Manfrotto 055 Carbon Fiber 3-section tripod! Value of $5,995!
• local and international hunting and fishing trips
• one of a kind custom Louis Vuitton handbag
• YETI Tundra 350 cooler – complete with beer and snacks for the perfect weekend BBQ!
• two VIP tickets to the SOLD OUT MeatEater: Off the Air show in Portland, including a meet & greet with Steven Rinella and friends
• two Gold VIP Chillaxification tickets to Kenny Chesney: Chillaxification Tour July 18, plus a one night stay at Fairmont Olympic Hotel
• artwork by Ryan Perry
  

And as always, we will auction off the Washington State Governor's Mountain Goat Tag!

Buy tickets and browse a sampling of live auction items at https://sscf.schoolauction.net/convention2020

Purchase a Life Membership which includes an entry to win a 10-day guided Moose hunt with Milligan Outfitting LTD or a custom ordered 28 Nosler build by Benchmark Barrels!           

Questions? Contact Sally Torres @ 425-864-1171 or eastonjane1883@gmail.com

[Skyvalhunter]

Sally how does this make a difference for conservation in Wa?

[Boss .300 winmag]

🤔

Her post count is one, be interesting to see if she comes back on to answer follow up question when she says any ? contact her.

[jackelope]

🤔

Her post count is one, be interesting to see if she comes back on to answer follow up question when she says any ? contact her.

What’s the point of a comment like that? She’s done more for hunting in this state than a lot of us combined.
I know her well. She’ll be back. It’ll be more interesting to know who else will support the cause. If you contact her and she doesn’t answer, let me know.

[Bango skank]

Seems crazy to me that people want to put money and effort into establishing pronghorn populations when we cant even keep our deer, elk or moose populations healthy.  We should put effort into managing what we already have, and worry about being successful at that, before we go adding more animals to the mix.  Hell, we cant even keep a stable whitetail herd, how sad is that?

[jackelope]

Seems crazy to me that people want to put money and effort into establishing pronghorn populations when we cant even keep our deer, elk or moose populations healthy.  We should put effort into managing what we already have, and worry about being successful at that, before we go adding more animals to the mix.  Hell, we cant even keep a stable whitetail herd, how sad is that?

Pretty sure they’re working on more than just pronghorn. Maybe you guys should come and see what it’s all about rather than complaining and questioning then not doing anything to help.

This is sadly how this sort of thing usually goes. Been there done that. We all sit around and complain about hunting in our state and wildlife in our state. We then have a legitimate organization doing things to help  who are looking for support and people question and complain and make silly pointless comments. 

[Rainier10]

 

Just checking in to see how we as a group treat a first time poster who is working to raise money to help our wildlife.

So far I am not impressed but maybe this thread will take an unexpected turn for the positive.

[BC CHASER]

The antelope project has been going on for over 10 years. Why start something and not see it through? This group has also spent a lot of time on big horn sheep and mountain goat projects as well. Its a small number of people who are actually getting this stuff done. So instead of criticizing why not get involved, a handful of people can only do so much!

[MamaBear]

First, let me clarify that Sally is the event coordinator.  She can help with questions about ticket sales and such.  Questions about this post, you can direct to me.

In addition to some of the key projects noted in the original post, over the past 20 years the involved organizations have invested more than $2.2M into conservation efforts, including, but not limited to the following. If you want to see the full list, I’ve attached images of the list to this post.
 
•   $191,300 Reintroduction & Support of native Pronghorn Antelope in WA State
•   $73,150 Mountain Goat Population Surveys in WA with WDFW
•   $10,000 Grizzly bear study & survey in British Columbia w/ GOABC
•   $39,000 Wild sheep transplants, vaccinations and radio collars in WA & OR
•   $13,000 Rocky Mountain Bighorn sheep population survey in BC.
•   $42,000 DNA testing and cataloging of mountain lions in WA 
•   $3,000 Bighorn Sheep feeding and supplement nutrition project, WA
•   $9,500 Bear Dog project with the WDFW to aid in handling problem bears.
•   $56,250 Baja Desert Bighorn Sheep survey, optics and conservation project.
•   $731,950 Special Government Tag sales funding species specific game mgmt   
•   $182,238 Donations to SCI National for projects
•   $172,238 Donations to SCI National for projects 
•   $7,200 Snyder Fish Hatchery & Olympic Peninsula Guides Assoc.
•   $35,000 SE WA Bighorn Sheep Collar Project 05
•   $8,000 Mule Deer Genetic study and survey w/Purdue University
•   $20,000 Bighorn Sheep Fencing Project
•   $650 Mt. Rainer Elk surveys
•   $15,300 Chelan Bighorn Sheep Collar Project 07
•   $2,000 Deer Decoy for WDFW
•   $9,900 Wolverine GPS Tracking Project, SE Alaska
•   $85,300 Seri Indians – Mexico/Cooperative Sheep Funding
•   $14,850 WDFW/Cooperative Wildlife Project Funding
•   $2,000 WSU Research Funding
•   $5,000 Hells Canyon Capture and Collar
•   $10,304 Bighorn Sheep Survey                                                                                                                 
•   $2,000 Predator Control Support
•   $11,000 Vulcan Mountain Big Horn Sheep Projects
•   $2,300 Mountain Goat Relocation Support and Ear Tags
 
Personally, this is about the legacy that we leave for our children--being able to actively participate in raising funds to re-introduce Antelope, going to Nevada and putting my hands on 50+ antelope, watching the release, and then bringing my two young children into the field to see them and their babies – that’s important.  Taking Hunter Ed with my son and being in the outdoors with him, that’s important.  Receiving funding from SCI to add Wildlife curriculum into a local elementary school, to introduce concepts to kids that would instead never be exposed to this – that’s important. What we leave behind to future generations is critical. 

The fundraiser is coordinated by Seattle Sportsmen’s Conservation Foundation and Seattle Puget Sound Chapter of Safari Club International, both of which are voting members of Hunter’s Heritage Council and Washingtonians for Wildlife.  Many of our members spend their time lobbying in Olympia and Washington DC, in addition to partnering with WDFW. 

If you’d like to learn more about these organizations, you can visit www.working4wildlife.com and/or www.sciseattlepsc.com.  Both websites are in process of being updated, but give you a sense of the work that we do.  In addition, you are always welcome to attend our monthly meetings. Come to the event, meet us, get to know what we do, and share your opinions.  If you feel passionate that focus is being placed on the wrong things, get involved and help shape where we spend time and money.

[jackelope]

 

[Boss .300 winmag]

🤔

Her post count is one, be interesting to see if she comes back on to answer follow up question when she says any ? contact her.

What’s the point of a comment like that? She’s done more for hunting in this state than a lot of us combined.
I know her well. She’ll be back. It’ll be more interesting to know who else will support the cause. If you contact her and she doesn’t answer, let me know.

Just what it says, nothing else to be read into it.

[KFhunter]

🤔

Her post count is one, be interesting to see if she comes back on to answer follow up question when she says any ? contact her.

I didn't know much about SSCF living on the east side,  but it looks legit, might be a great place to get your conservation on, and it's fairly local for you 

[Bango skank]

Seems crazy to me that people want to put money and effort into establishing pronghorn populations when we cant even keep our deer, elk or moose populations healthy.  We should put effort into managing what we already have, and worry about being successful at that, before we go adding more animals to the mix.  Hell, we cant even keep a stable whitetail herd, how sad is that?

Pretty sure they’re working on more than just pronghorn. Maybe you guys should come and see what it’s all about rather than complaining and questioning then not doing anything to help.

This is sadly how this sort of thing usually goes. Been there done that. We all sit around and complain about hunting in our state and wildlife in our state. We then have a legitimate organization doing things to help  who are looking for support and people question and complain and make silly pointless comments.

Im not complaining, im not questioning whether they do anything.  Just commenting on the pronghorn thing.  Just cant wrap my head around why people want to introduce a new big game animal when we cant manage the ones we have.

[KFhunter]

wasn't pronhorn a collaborative effort with tribes?   I'm not against doing that. 


agree on mismanagement of other big game species, letting caribou die then introducing prongs  /boggle


but still, I'm not against prongs in WA.

We got other threads to talk about these issues, this is for a fund raiser for SSCF so lets not 

[Bob33]

I think it's awesome we have antelope in Washington, and appreciate that local Safari Club chapters put funding and human resources into making it happen in addition to supporting other hunting and conservation causes.