Cast Your Vote ‘Brotherhood Outdoors’ in Sportsman Choice Awards
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“Brotherhood Outdoors,” the unique hunting and fishing television series of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) that showcases hard-working union members on hunting and fishing adventures has chosen a finalist in the 2011 Sportsman Choice Awards—the equivalent of the outdoors Emmys.
The Sportsman Choice Awards are the only exclusively viewer-decided awards program in the outdoor television industry. Brotherhood Outdoors is up in two categories: Best Fish Show and Best Combination (hunting and fishing).
You can vote through Dec. 11 by going to the Sportsman Channel’s Facebook page here. By voting, you could win a trip for two to the Sportsman Choice Awards party, held annually in Las Vegas during the SHOT (Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade) Show in January. You also will have the chance to win the first-place prize of a Zeiss Conquest riflescope or one of 25 complimentary, one-year subscriptions to any magazine produced by InterMedia Outdoors. Read the rest of this entry »
Win an Elk Hunt from Union Sportsmen’s Alliance
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Laura Morris of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) sends this report on a great contest for USA union members.
A Western backcountry elk hunt complete with wall tents and mountain savvy mules is the ultimate North American hunting adventure and the dream of many big game hunters.
The Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and the Elevator Constructors (IUEC) have joined forces to give AFL-CIO-affiliated union members the opportunity to win a Nevada trophy elk hunt while raising funds for the USA’s new Boots on the Ground (BOTG) conservation program.
The lucky union winner will join noted guide and outfitter Shad Leeder of Leeder Hunting for a seven-day, pack train hunt in Nevada’s Schell Creek and Snake Range areas, where bulls typically score 330-350 and can exceed 400 Boone & Crockett points. In addition to the guided hunt, the $18,000 prize package includes a highly coveted landowner elk permit, licenses, roundtrip airfare to Las Vegas, ground transportation, meals and lodging.
Conservation Groups, Union Sportsmen Call for Water, Outdoor Lands Bill
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The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP), which includes the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), is urging Congress to act now to approve legislation to restore and conserve the Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes and valuable fish and wildlife habitat. If you hunt or fish or just enjoy the outdoors, you can help.
With encroaching development, growing population and more private lands, wildlife habitat is shrinking. One way to preserve and grow the amount of land open to hunting and fishing and other outdoor recreation is through the Land and Water Conservation Fund
The TRCP says in the short time remaining for Congress to act this year, it should develop a package of land, water and wildlife legislation, including full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Click here to send a message to your lawmakers supporting an omnibus outdoors land and water bill. Read the rest of this entry »
Union Sportsmen/Triton Boats Partner for Bass Boat Giveaway
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Union Sportsmen Alliance’s (USA‘s) Kate Cywinski sends us the latest on a special offer for union members that could also put a new bass boat in the water for a lucky union sportsman or sportswoman.
Triton Boats founder and president Earl Bentz is widely acknowledged as one of the most creative individuals in the fiercely competitive sports fishing boat industry. He also knows that union workers have been fighting unfair foreign competition for years to keep good manufacturing jobs in America.
That’s one of the reasons he says he partnered with the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance in 2008 and why he is honoring union members with a special offer and the chance to win a brand new bass boat. As he puts it:
Our company’s success is due in part to our many loyal union customers.
New Season for Union Member Adventures in ‘Escape to the Wild’
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Illinois Firefighter (IAFF) Greg Curry’s elk-hunting adventure in some of Colorado’s most breathtaking countryside kicks off the fourth season of ”Escape to the Wild” on VERUS Country. The season premiere of the show, which takes union members on once-in-a-lifetime hunting and fishing adventures, will air Sunday, Jan. 3, at 9:30 a.m. EST.
The show is a union-sponsored television series of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP). “Escape to the Wild” is supported by the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), a joint venture of the TRCP and 21 unions to promote conservation and access for hunters and anglers.
While the show chronicles each union member’s outdoor adventure, it also gives viewers a look into the lives of the winners—their struggles, their triumphs and their commitment to their union, families and the outdoors.
New Season for Union-Backed Outdoors Show
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The popular outdoors show, “TRCP’s Life in the Open,” sponsored by unions in the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), begins its fifth season on VERSUS Country Sunday, Oct. 4, at 9 a.m. EDT.
The Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership’s (TRCP‘s) flagship show’s premier takes us on a Sitka black-tailed deer hunt and salmon fishing trip in the heart of Alaska’s publicly accessible, 17-million-acre Tongass National Forest.
The show explores outdoor adventures and also highlights pressing fish and wildlife conservation issues while venturing to some of the best hunting and fishing destinations that are both accessible and affordable to hardworking American sportsmen.
This season, viewers will learn about stalking Montana’s big bull elk, braving Alaska’s elements and monster salmon and calling in javelina in New Mexico. Other adventures will feature pheasants and bruiser bucks in western Kansas, kudu and hartebeest in Africa, striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay and ducks in California’s famed rice fields.
Visit www.TRCP.tv for a complete schedule, photos and more.
The USA unions providing support for the show are Machinists (IAM), Boilermakers (IBB), Electrical Workers (IBEW), Bricklayers (BAC), Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA), Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) and Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA).
Union Sportsmen: Dedicated Funding Needed to Safeguard Fish and Wildlife
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Union sportsmen see firsthand how climate change has harmed the woods, streams and lakes, even as the rest of us are aware of the planet heating up from reports of shrinking ice shelves to holes in the Earth’s ozone layer.
In a letter to congressional leaders from 20 of the unions in the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) and the Union Sportsmen Alliance (USA), the unions write:
Union sportsmen do not need to read reports in the press to know climate change is already affecting the ways they pursue game and fish, the success of their days afield and the timing of their hunting and fishing trips.
The 20 unions urge the leaders of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to include dedicated funding to safeguard fish, wildlife and ecosystems important to sportsmen be in Senate climate change legislation.
Here’s Your Chance to Win a Chevy Truck
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If you are a member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), you may be able to head off to your favorite hunting land or fishing spot this summer in a brand-new 2009 Chevy Silverado. The Chevy truck will go to the winner of a drawing on or about July 2. All USA members will automatically be entered in the drawing. (For contest details, click here.)
General Motors and its Chevrolet division are partners with the USA, the hunting, fishing and conservation club for union members, retirees and their families, and the Teddy Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP).
Says Fred Myers, USA executive director:
In these tough economic times, we are honored that Chevrolet recognizes the importance of preserving our national resources and has stepped up to support the TRCP conservation mission and its union-dedicated hunting and fishing club. Through this partnership, we can educate sportsmen about access opportunities around the country, while enhancing the value of USA membership.
Firefighter’s Hobby Turns Into a Reel Book: Fly Fishing in Virginia
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Beau Beasley spends his work days in his Fairfax County, Va., firehouse, where he and his fellow Fire Fighters (IAFF) Local 2068 members spring into action at the sound of the alarm to douse a blazing home or tend to injured accident victims.
It’s no wonder that after a 0-60 mph, start-and-stop workweek, Beasley might be looking for a change of pace. He finds that alternative universe in a stream or river with a fly rod in his hand.
The 25-year fire-fighting veteran says he began fly fishing after a patient he was transporting to the hospital offered to teach him how.
It has brought thousands of hours of enjoyment to my life.
In the years since, Beasley has become so adept at the art of fly fishing—far more complicated than throwing a worm, a hook and a line into the water—he is now a respected author and expert on fly fishing.
