Welcome to the Portland Oregon Chapter of Safari Club International

The 2009 Youth Hunt at Clover Creek was a great success. Not only did all of the youth harvest animals from the ranch, but also they recieved an amazing welcome to the ranch with Rodney Smith's amazing bacon cheeseburger dinner. Rodney is on the SCI Board and has donated the Friday night meal for the youth hunt for the past several years not to mention guiding youth on the ranch for the weekend and capturing some great pictures. We have also been blessed for the past several years to have members like Dan Barnard and his son Austin to guide and present hunters safety information so that no one forgets the importance of safety for the weekend. Dan and Austin had lead a great "shoot or don't shoot" game with the group that everyone enjoyed. Dan also provided hunter safety vests and a hat for each participant.

Friday night we also had the pleasure of having Clark Couch, Clover Creek Ranch Owner at the campfire. He has made the Animal Youth Hunt for many youth possible. He also surprised the group with the offer of some trophy animals and we drew names from a hat to see who get the oppurtunity to harvest one of the three trophy animals.

Saturday the hunting began and as youth rolled back into camp with their animals Clark was there to dress out the animal and provided some of his tips and this always turns into an anatomy lesson. For those youth that harvested an animal it was time to work on our first time conservation project with the youth. John Alderman, SCI Board member and Youth committe member, had pre-cut wood for Blue Bird nesting boxes that the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife expressed having a need for in some of the wildlife areas. Each participant of the Youth Hunt was required to make a Bird Box after his or her hunting was over. John assisted the youth with reading the plans and with the help of some of the participants siblings we left with 12 bird boxes that we will deliver to the game departemtn to place in the needed areas. They also provided us with education material about wildlife and other oppurtunities for enhancing wildlife that we passed on the participants in indvidiual packets. This was also a time that we discussed the importance of staying involved and SCI's mission and hunter's contribution to the protection of wildlife to ensure future hunting oppurtunities.

This trip was full of firsts; first coservation project with our youth hunt, first vegetarian hunter guided by Rodney Smith and the first youth archer guided by John Alderman at the ranch.

Thank you to the following guides (SCI Members) that donated their time and knowledge to make this another great experience for not only the yout but for their families: Dan and Austin Barnard, Dale Matthews, Rodney Smith and John Alderman.

Important Dates to Remember:
April 17, 2010 19th Annual Banquet and Fundraiser

Special Announcements

My fellow SCI members,

As I start my first term as your president I want to take this time and thank Dale Matthews for all his support and guidance; He has helped lay a good foundation for the chapter.

The Portland chapter will once again be using our resources for conservation, educational and humanitarian projects. In addition to that we are going to do more things for the youth in our chapter.

We would also like to get more involvement from the women in our chapter. Our Sables representative is Chris Matthews who can be reached at @tds.net, she needs your ideas and support.

Our 2009 fund-raiser will be March 14th, 2009 at the Monarch Hotel in Clackamas, OR. It opens at 3:00 PM and dinners is served at 6:00 PM. We plan on having a much expanded ladies and youth offering at the fund-raiser. More information to follow in upcoming newsletters.

Good Hunting,
Doug Stromberg