Week of December 15, 2008

Feature USA Discount



Founded in 1991 to create skilled jobs to produce reliable, high quality, Union-made wrist watches, The American Time Companies is the only producer of uniquely decorated, custom dial clocks and the leading manufacturer of custom dial wrist watches.  The American Time Companies is proud to offer USA members a 15% discount on select watches and desk clocks.

Click here to take advantage of this special offer.

November Gun Winners

Dan Lich
Member of IUEC Local 21
November Gun-A-Month Drawing

Larry Stall
Member of UA Local 539
300 New Member Drawing

Fred MacKenzie
Member of IAMAW Local 1005
300 New Member Drawing


All USA members are included in the USA Gun-A-Month drawing. Every 300 new members are included in an additional raffle.

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USA Quarterly Newspaper Coming in 2009



The USA will launch a quarterly
newspaper in early 2009 featuring exclusive USA deals, tips and tactics, the latest hunting and fishing news, member photos and more.  USA members will receive the first issue in mid-February.  We need your help to get extra copies to union hunters and anglers who have not yet joined the USA.  To request copies to distribute, contact Sara Gabbard.

Give 25 - Get 365



In honor of T.R.'s 150th birthday, the TRCP's 2009 calendar titled "Teddy's Vision, Our Mission" features stunning nature photography and historical quotes and images of Theodore Roosevelt.  Donate $25 or more to support the TRCP’s efforts to guarantee you a place to hunt and fish and get a little something back along the way. Click here.

Join the USA ProStaff

Earn great prizes such as outdoor gear or a new Beretta shotgun as you help build the USA!

 

The USA is a program of the
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), a coalition of America's leading conservation
groups, trade unions and individuals working together to preserve the traditions of hunting and fishing. 
Learn more about the sportsmen's issues the TRCP is working on at www.TRCP.org.

 

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More USA Member Photos

 

Ronald Ghighi, Retired Local 353 Steamfitter in Washington, IL.  This buck was harvested during the 2008 Illinois gun season.

 

 

Jonathan Mitchell, Member of IBEW Local 490 in Berwick, ME.

 

 

Jack Lee, Business Manager of
Roofers Local 210 in Erie, PA.  This 38 pound, male coyote was harvested last Thanksgiving in southwestern NY.

 

 

Mark Forsythe, Executive Board Member of Roofers Local 210 in Erie, PA.  This 12-point buck with a 21 inch inside spread was harvested with a bow during a snow storm in October 2008.

 

 

William Hammond, Member of IBEW Local 649 in Bethalto, IL.

 

 

Lt. Gerry Gay, President of IAFF Local 1624 in Sanford, ME.  This 6 Point, 195 lb. buck was harvested in northern Maine in 2007.

 

 

 

Matthew Gerrits, Member of IAFF Local 257 in Kaukauna, WI, with his family.  Three generations of hunters are pictured.

 

 

In This Issue:

Best Shot Photo Contest
Happy Holidays from the USA
Holiday Deals Exclusively for USA Members
Escape to the Wild Season 3 Premieres with Bear Hunt
Bag-a-Buddy and Bag a Big Prize
Piece of Hunting Heaven Gets Boost from Union Wyomingites
Bilskey BBQ Goose Recipe

Best Shot Photo Contest | November Winner



Mike Higgins, Vice President of United Steelworkers Local 449 in Maine, harvested this 8-point buck in a remote cranberry bog in central Maine during firearm season.  The buck weighed 192 lbs. dressed.    

Win a Buck Knife with Your Best Photo
Send us your best hunting, fishing or outdoor photos for your chance to win a #110 Buck knife engraved with the USA logo ($70 value) in our USA Best Shot monthly photo contest.  Submit photos with your name, phone number, address and a short description, by email to USAmembers@trcp.org or by mail to USA-Best Shot Photo Contest, 3340 Perimeter Hill Dr., Nashville, TN  37211. 

Photos will not be returned.  By submitting a photo, you acknowledge that you have read and agreed to the following Contest Rules.  top

On top of great savings, all offers include FREE shipping and handling on standard deliveries.  Offers and merchandise are only available until January 5, 2009, so visit www.UnionSportsmen.org/deals today.

TRCP TV | Escape to the Wild Season 3 Premieres Jan. 4 with Idaho Black Bear Hunt
by Kevin V. Reese

Wes Blankenship, a dedicated family man and pipefitter with UA Local 597 in Chicago, always dreamed of an exotic big game hunt but knew such a hunt was mired in impossibilities. 

Ever the family guide, Wes accepted the improbability of his dream hunt and funneled his energy into sharing his passion for the outdoors with his family.  Each year, Wes dedicates gun season to getting his wife and kids a deer. “I’ve had some awesome hunts with me never having a gun,” Wes said.

Wes grew up hunting with his father, who taught him the importance of wildlife conservation and ethical hunting.  He now teaches his family to “make the first shot count,” five words that define Wes’s character.

Life hasn’t always been easy for the Blankenships.  Not long ago, Wes was in a motorcycle accident that kept him bedridden for eight weeks and nearly left the family in financial ruin.  But Wes’s union family stepped up to help, and the Blankenships bounced back.  

So what do you give an outdoorsman who dedicates his life and passions to strengthen his family’s bond and values?  Wes’s wife hoped to give him a hunt of a lifetime when she learned of TRCP’s Escape the Wild, a TV show of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership and sponsoring unions and contractor associations that honors hardworking union members with the hunting or fishing trip of a lifetime.

“She went on her own and did all this.  Totally a surprise for me,” Wes said, after learning his wife and children submitted an application for him. 

True to his ability to surprise, show host Tom Ackerman was in rare form, posing as an overbearing inspector trying Wes’s patience.  Soon after, Wes found himself at the Flying B Ranch in Kamiah, Idaho ready for his first black bear hunt.  

It didn’t take Wes long to discover the challenges of bear hunting.  “Just climbing the mountains was tough.  We couldn’t see 50 yards in front of us most of the time,” he said.  On the first afternoon, “we sat on the ground for four hours and never saw a thing.  But that’s hunting, and I told Tom that a bear is just icing on the cake.”

As dusk closed in on the last day, Wes was still without a bear.  At 7:15 p.m., a bear appeared 100 yards away.  Minutes ticked away and Wes grew anxious as the bear moved around, never quite offering that broadside shot. 

“It’s driving me crazy,” Wes said.  “Finally, our guide says, ‘Are you comfortable with that shot?’”

Does Wes bag a trophy bear?  Tune in to the season premiere of Escape to the Wild season 3 on VERSUS Country on Sunday, January 4th at 9:30 a.m. Eastern.

All new episodes air Sundays at 9:30 a.m. Eastern. 
Complete schedule with additional airings will soon be posted on www.VERSUSCountry.com. top

Recruitment | Bag-A-Buddy to Build the USA and You Could Bag a Big Prize

Help the USA reel in new members through our Bag-A-Buddy program and you could bag a big prize.  Get just three of your union buddies to join the USA using our Bag-A-Buddy applications, and we’ll send you an exclusive USA-logo Buck knife ($30 value). 

Plus, for every three USA members you scope out and bring on board, you’ll be entered in a drawing for Leupold Golden Ring HD binoculars, valued at $800. 

With revolutionary HD lenses and anti-reflective lens coatings, Golden Ring binoculars offer vivid color and crystalline clarity for a superior view of the outdoors.  

The best thing about USA’s Bag-A-Buddy season is that it has no limit.  The more buddies you scope out and bag as USA members, the greater your chance of taking home the trophy—Leupold Golden Ring binoculars.

For Details: Visit www.UnionSportsmen.org and click on the
Bag-A-Buddy button.  

This offer is made possible by Leupold Optics and Buck Knives. top

Conservation | A "Little" Piece of Hunting Heaven Gets Boost from Union Wyomingites
by Dwayne Meadows

Sweetwater County in southern Wyoming is home to some of the last desert elk herds in America, as well as thousands of antelope and trophy mule deer, abundant native trout fisheries and sage grouse. The region’s economy is stable, and industry has depended on locals as a source of union labor for decades, but most people choose to live there simply because they love it.



Sweetwater County’s crowning glory is a place called Little Mountain.  Locals call it “out south” or “our backyard.”  Many have waited as long as 20 years to get a limited-quota elk tag on Little Mountain. Many more go to Little Mountain just to watch wildlife. So not long ago, when the area was proposed for natural gas development, residents initiated a grassroots effort to protect it.

The movement to conserve Little Mountain was launched in the union halls of Rock Springs. Tony Herrera, a steelworker and president of the Southwest Wyoming Labor Council, Monte Morlock, president of United Steelworkers Local 13214, and a few of their brothers began to organize, not for labor but for Little Mountain, the place where they teach their children about the outdoors, picnic with their families and chase monster bucks each fall.

Members of Steelworkers Local 13214 joined with conservation groups like the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, Trout Unlimited and the Wyoming Wildlife Federation to protect this local hunting haven from irresponsible energy development. The unlikely alliance soon gained the support of the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal.

Their efforts have been attracting attention, both statewide and nationally. The first win came this fall when a drilling company wanted to do a seismic survey of the region, which would have involved low-flying helicopters setting off explosives to study Little Mountain’s geology. The coalition of labor, conservation groups and state government convinced the Bureau of Land Management to block the company’s plans amidst fears the survey would negatively affect wildlife right before the start of hunting season.

More recently, the BLM offered 18,000 acres for lease to the oil and gas industry on Little Mountain in locations that had been the recipient of more than $2 million in habitat work. While locals realize oil and gas is part of the county’s economy, they also have seen the thousands of miles of roads and wells that have been built there in the past 10 years – and the effects of this development on fish and wildlife. It was time to organize, so the people of Sweetwater County, the Southwest Labor Council and the Steelworkers Local began spreading the word about a meeting to stop the leases from being sold.



On Nov. 11, more than 120 concerned locals, many still in their muddy work boots, crammed into a small room in Rock Springs with representatives of the TRCP, Steelworkers Local 13214, Mule Deer Foundation and Wyoming Wildlife Federation. After heated discussions with the BLM, folks left fired up and committed to protecting the best hunting and outdoor recreation in southern Wyoming.

The BLM received more than 125 letters of protest on the Little Mountain parcels. The day before Thanksgiving, the agency withdrew those parcels from its quarterly energy lease sale. Yet this is not the end of the Little Mountain fight. 

“We’ve spent a lot of money on Little Mountain to support a very unique ecosystem,” said Morlock. “Sportsmen aren’t against development – far from it, as the energy industry provides a lot of us with our livelihoods – but this part of southwestern Wyoming is one of those special places that should be set aside for the public’s enjoyment.” top