In the BCLS’s March meeting, Doug Frank of Lee was selected to receive its Sportsman of the Year Award.  He has been a long time member and Board member of the Lee Sportsmen’s Association (LSA) and has always been there to help out.  He ran the Club’s pheasant program and was co-chairman of the skeet field.  He has always believed in promoting the shooting sports and became a NRA Certified Instructor in Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun and as a Range Safety Officer.

Recently, he became a NRA Certified Skeet Shooting Coach.  He has been a coach for the LSA Buckshots, which is part of the Scholastic Skeet & Trap Program, which he now runs. He is a Massachusetts Hunter Education instructor and teaches at the LSA and other places. Every year he helps out with the Youth Pheasant Hunt with his dogs.  He also helps out with the LSA Annual Ice Fishing Derby and Pheasant Fund Raising Dinner.  He always helps with the fundraising, whether at the Gala Dinner, Turkey Shoots, Raffle Tickets, and more.

Karen Karlberg of Becket was selected to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award.  She was a long time member of the Taconic Chapter of Trout Unlimited and at one time served on its Board.  In 2005, Karen was the recipient of the Taconic Chapter’s highest honor, the Crooked Staff Award.  This award is presented to the person who best represents the ideals of TU, that being the conserving, protecting and restoring of North America’s coldwater fisheries and their watersheds

Karen was heavily involved with the ASERP (Atlantic Salmon Egg Rearing Program) in the Becket schools.  She helped the Becket grammar school system establish the program some 14 years ago.  In this program 3^rd and 4^th grade students raised young salmon fry from egg to fry and released them into Yokum Brook in Becket.  She obtained the eggs from the Belchertown Hatchery drove them to the school, and took care of them during school vacations.  After the salmon program was ended, she continued her assistance with its Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program.

She was involved with the Housatonic Valley Association (HVA) Housatonic River clean-ups,  taught flycasting to children during HVA events and educated youths about maco-invertibrates.  She was a stream guide for the Casting for the Recovery Program, a support and educational program for breast cancer survivors. She assisted with the MassWildlife’s Becoming an Outdoorsman (BOW) Program

She is involved with the Westfield River Watershed clean-ups and eradication of invasives.  She serves on its Wild & Scenic Committee and helps with trail clean-ups. She worked with the Nature Conservancy doing wildlife tracking and assessments.

Tom Macy of Sheffield has been selected to receive the Sportsmen’s Appreciation Award.  He has been a member of the Sheffield Sporting Club for 49 years, serving as President for 10 years, Treasurer for 32 years and on the Board of Directors for 46 years. He played a major part in moving the club to its current location and building the club house, 2 skeet fields and a trap field.

For years he led a 22 rifle club for the Boy Scouts and an instructional course for 5^th and 6^th grade students that taught gun safety and also gave them the opportunity to shoot a rifle, pistol and shotgun. Tom has maintained and repaired the clubs 4 skeet, 5 five-stand traps and set the trap field to be run by vocal release.  Tom has always donated both time and money to the Sheffield Sporting Club. The money he made driving students to high school sporting events was donated to construct the observation/porch addition to the club. He also donated enough money to enable the club to buy one of the 2 new traps last year.  This year, as in all past years, he has cleared all the fields of snow so members could shoot all winter.

Robert J. McDermott of West Stockbridge was selected to receive the prestigious John Zuber Outstanding Achievement Award.  Bob is a NRA Benefactor Life Member, Instructor, Training Counselor, MA and Utah Certified Instructor and a MA Hunter Education Instructor.  He is a member of the Stockbridge Sportsmen’s Club, Lee Sportsmen’s Association and Agawam Revolver Club. He is the author of the Massachusetts Pistol License Course (LTC-020) that is taught to approximately 35% of new licensees in MA each year.   He teaches the Basic Hunter Ed course with the team at the Lee Sportsmen’s Association.  He has taught over 6,000 students.   In addition to teaching at local clubs, he has taught at Smith & Wesson, Savage Arms, Cabela’s and others.  He also teaches courses to raise funds for the Stockbridge and Lee sportsmen’s clubs. He was taught about firearm safety and hunting by his father, and feels that it is important to “pay it forward”  to preserve our heritage and rights.

The late John Zuber was recognized twice by the BCLS ( Lifetime Achievement Award and the Sportsman of the Year Award) for his work and dedication to the sportsmen of Massachusetts.  He was also recognized by the Massachusetts Sportsmen’s Council and is listed in its Hall of Fame.

These richly deserved awards will be presented at the Silvio O. Conte Memorial Banquet at the Cheshire Rod and Gun Club on the evening of April 15.   This year the event will also be in honor of George “Gige” Darey, recently retired Massachusetts Fish & Wildlife Board Chairman.  Tickets which cost $30 can be obtained from any BCLS delegate.

Trout Stocking

Leanda Fontaine Gagnon, DFW Western District Aquatic Biologist, informed us that they stocked Onota Lake in Pittsfield last Friday.  The weather and conditions have kept them from making any concrete stocking plans, leaving them to monitor local waters on a day-by-day basis.