May 2010 President's Message

Spring Changes & Summer Planning

Spring is often the time for change and renewal. How many folks are "spring cleaning" their tackle, garages, lawn equipment, and contemplating the painting of a house or fence? Many of us, tired of the New England winter, long for a new look, something different. Great Bay TU is no different. This spring we have a new logo! While there is nothing wrong with the TU National logo and the mission that it symbolizes, but we desired something we could call our own; a symbol that defines us, that all of the members of GBTU can identify with right here in NH. That logo will shortly be displayed on our website, and logo patches and stickers will be available at events and meetings.

This spring we will be cleaning two rivers, the Lamprey and the Cocheco. Participants will be rewarded with cold drinks and burgers and hotdogs hot off the grill. Come out and show that you care about our rivers.

While our monthly meetings at the Urban Forestry Center take a summer hiatus, the chapter will still be busy. We will be manning a table at the Piscataqua River Festival, June 5th, sponsored by the Gundalow Company, and the following day will be holding the first Cocheco Kid's River day. We will be busy preparing for the 4th annual state TU Youth Conservation Camp up at Pittsburg, NH, with several of our members and board members participating. Planning for our annual CFR Day, and a few other events which should be announced shortly, are also underway, not to mention lining up our guest speakers for next season when our monthly meetings at the Urban Forestry Center start again in October.

I am sure many of you will be busy on our ponds, rivers, streams and the salt over the next several months, as I hope to be once all of the above is successfully completed. Don't forget that you have to have a NOAA registration to legally fish the salt this year. It is free this year, but next year the NH Saltwater license goes into effect for a $15.00 fee. Information is on our website on the news/recreation page.

We will try to keep the website up to date during the summer months, so check it out from time to time and feel free to email us at greatb3@greatbaytu.org with comments and questions. Speaking of which, we will be gradually switching over to a new bulk email service provided by TU National in order to be in complete compliance with anti-spam laws, so emails received from us may appear different. Please make sure that your email on your personal TU profile is current so that you will receive our emails about important issues and events.

This will be my last President's message until the fall, so have a good summer, fish enthusiastically, fish ethically, take a kid fishing, and have a great time this summer!

Tight Lines,
Mitch Kalter, President GBTU