Gill Raker Gazette

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Gill Raker Gazette
Newsletter of the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society

Volume 32, Issue 2

Newsletter of the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society
Volume 42, Issue 3

September 2023

Editor: Joe Kozfkay

President’s Message –“The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself”
Those famous words were spoken by President Franklin Roosevelt
at his first inaugural address in 1933, speaking of the financial crisis
gripping the nation at that time. I print them here because fear (oractually, fearlessness) was on my mind a lot this year. My son Nathan played Little League baseball on the Tigers, and I was theteam’s coach. From the very beginning, I wanted the kids to workat being as fearless as possible. Anyone who knows 10-12 year olds
know that when it comes to competing at anything, some show
almost no fear, some are petrified, and most are somewhere in between. Since we were the Tigers, I made Nathan watch Rocky III,and you might remember that the theme song was Eye of the Tiger.
Remember the lyrics? They speak of the thrill of the fight, rising to
the challenge of your rival, and having the Eye of the Tiger. We allknow how that phrase describes someone who is very focused anddetermined. I talked to Nathan and then the rest of his teammates
about this idiom and this song, and how it could represent ourteam motto for the season. I preached to them that there is no reason to be afraid during practice or in games, that you should justembrace each moment and do your best, and not worry about making errors, striking out, getting hit by a pitch, or any other bad
things happening. Just focus your mind and body on what’s goingon on the field, and do your best. It was amazing how much thesekids embraced this message. After a few weeks, they were singing
our theme song repetitively throughout each inning while we were ICAFS President Kevin Meyer (left) and a former
ICAFS President Bart Gamett (right) are allbatting. They still played with some fear at times, but I also witsmiles while preparing to electrofish in central
nessed times where they ALL truly had the Eye of the Tiger, andIdaho.
those moments were special.
On the topic of fear, I often think about graduate school, and how
worried I was that I wasn’t good enough to complete a Master’s degree or become a good biologist. By the time I
got to my defense, I had gone from fearing I was unexceptional to KNOWING I was. However, that realization
was actually liberating, because I also realized that if I put my mind to any fisheries project, I could make it a success as well as anyone else could, despite my mediocrity. My other son Jack just finished kindergarten, and histeacher focused all year on the word “try”. Don’t say you can’t do something without trying to do it: if you reallytry, you might realize that you can do it after all. And if you aren’t successful, you still might learn something valuable in the process.

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Volume 42, Issue 3

President’s Message (continued)
So why am I bringing all of this up here? It’s because as an Idaho AFS member, I think one of our main goals is tohelp our peers, our coworkers, and our young professionals be fearless when it comes to pursuing grad school, or
new jobs, or new opportunities that are outside our comfort zone. We should be encouraging them to try: try new
scripts in R that you’re unfamiliar with, try new data collection methods that are challenging yet seem ideal for thesituation, try new ways to resolve conflict, etc. Such encouragement is what a good mentor or peer would do.
Don’t lament later in your career that you missed an opportunity to provide this sort of inspiration to others. And if
you do feel some regrets regarding missed opportunities, it is never too late to apply this sort of inspiration moving
forward, to whoever crosses your professional - or personal - path. I challenge each of us to put fear of failure or
inadequacy aside and help others do the same, and just go for it each and every day. Watching mentees take flightand blossom into the biologist they always wanted to be has been one of the most rewarding aspects of my career,and I’m sure you all would echo that feeling. If you don’t directly supervise staff, encourage peers to be fearless.
Encourage them to have the Eye of the Tiger. And rejoice in their successes when they do. Our chapter will bestronger if we all pitch in.
PS - To the Core Planning Team who helped put together all the pieces of the spring 2023 WDAFS meeting in Boise, I am forever in your debt for all your hard work and dedication. Thank You!

-Kevin Meyer
ICAFS President

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Volume 42, Issue 32023 Western Division & Idaho Chapter Joint Annual
Meeting Summary
Managing Aquatic Ecosystems and Shifting Baselines: Challenges andOpportunities—Communicated by Lauren Andrews
The Idaho Chapter was pleased to host the Western Division Annual Meeting at the Boise Centre on May 8-11,2023, ten years after hosting the last WDAFS meeting in Idaho. Our first fully in-person meeting since 2020, we
saw a total of 451 attendees hailing from 22 states and 4 Canadian provinces. Additionally, 54 students representing 24 colleges and universities participated.
Seven workshops kicked off the week on Monday with 250 attendees participating. These workshops offered awide variety of educational opportunities from technical programming to fish printing art. Specific workshops were
Small Stream Restoration Summit, Drones and Remote Sensing in Fisheries Science, Using Program R in Fisheries: A Primer, Primer on the Human Dimensions of Fisheries Management, Identifying and Preventing Harassment in the Field: A Training by FieldFutures, Everything you ever wanted to know about monitoring stream temperature but were afraid to ask, and Fish Printing Workshop.
President-Elect Kevin Meyer and Western Division President-Elect Laurie Earley put together an excellent plenary
program featuring three speakers from across the country and four invited talks. Plenary speaker Dr. Frank Rahelof University of Wyoming began with the Resist-Accept-Direct (RAD) framework. Dr. Mary Donovan from Arizona State University spoke about the changing climate’s effects on Hawaiian coral reefs, followed by Dr. Amy
Teffer from UMass Amherst discussing climate adaptive stocking. The whole meeting included 12 symposia of 118
talks, as well as 51 contributed talks, 7 Ignite presentations, and 23 posters.
We saw some new traditions added to our socials and extracurricular activities. In addition to the Welcome Social
on Monday evening, an Alphabet Social was held at the Idaho State Museum for meeting attendees identifying as
LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC. First-generation college students and early career professionals had the opportunity to
network at lunch on Tuesday. A Film and Photography Festival coincided with the meeting with two showings
offered during the week of 8 film finalists and 52 photos. All 23 submitted films can be viewed online via links inthe meeting program on the
ICAFS website. Six of thewinning photos were sold at
the live auction at the banquet.
We also had 44 athletes compete in the Spawning Run on
the Boise River Greenbelt on
Tuesday before a fun student/
professional pizza mixer featuring career experience bingo
cards.

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Volume 42, Issue 32023 Western Division & Idaho Chapter Joint Annual
Meeting Summary (continued)
Several Chapter members were recognized for their contributions at the Business Luncheon on Wednesday. The
prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Sharon Keifer along with a custom fish carving from Ken
Cain. Kevin Meyer was awarded the R.L. Wallace Fish Conservationist of the Year Award. Katharine Coykendall
was named Outstanding Mentor and Audrey Harris was named Outstanding Early Career Professional in the firstyear of the award. The Aquatic Habitat Award recognized Eagle Valley Ranch for their ongoing commitment tohabitat restoration in the Lemhi Valley. Awards of Merit were presented to Rebekah Horn and Rob Van Kirk fortheir service on EXCOM. Distinguished Service Awards were presented to Christine Stewart, Conor McClure,
Luciano Chiaramonte, Carson Watkins, Robert Hand, Lonnie Parry, Sage Unsworth, Tyler Breech, and Pat Kennedy (inset picture). Additionally, ICAFS members were awarded at the WDAFS Business Luncheon, including
Matthew Campbell (Award of Excellence), Jessica Buelow (Award of Merit), and Sage Unsworth (Eugene
Maughan Graduate Student Scholarship). The Tincup Creek project on the Caribou-Targhee National Forest waspresented with the USFS Riparian Challenge Award, received by Lee Mabey and Corey Lyman. Finally, our Idaho Chapter was recognized as the Outstanding Large Chapter and also given the Diversity and Inclusion Service
Award.
At the closing of the meeting, best student and poster
presentations were awarded to Jeremy Brooks and Thomas Doolittle, respectively. Jon Masingale was recognized
for the best Idaho student poster. Kevin See was voted best
professional presentation and Katharine Coykendal was
voted best professional poster.
We’re looking forward to our 2024 annual meeting, which
will be a joint meeting with the Washington-British Columbia Chapter. The meeting will be held at The Centennial Davenport Hotel in Spokane, WA on April 29-May 2,
2024. We hope you will join us!

2023 ICAFS Scholarship Winners
The development of fisheries professionals is an important part of the mission of the Idaho Chapter. As part of thiseffort, the Chapter sponsors several scholarships. Here are our 2023 scholars!

•
•
•
•
•

ICAFS Student Training & Opportunity Grant:
ICAFS High School Scholarship:
ICAFS Undergraduate Scholarship:
ICAFS Graduate Scholarship:
Susan B. Martin Scholarship:

Conrad Robbins
Nick Drobish
Lonnie Parry
Courtnie Ghere
Nick Voss

Coldwater Aquaculture Course
Orofino High School
BYU- Idaho
University of Idaho
University of Idaho

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Volume 42, Issue 3

ICAFS Financial Summary, Fiscal Year 2022-2023
Communicated by Jesse McCane
Each fiscal year (May 1st to April 30th) ICAFS operates from an operating budget sourced from fundraising income and a meeting budget that is covered by registration fees. In the 2022-2023 FY, there was a surplus of$13,274 in the operating budget and a net profit of $23,106 from the annual meeting with $52,485 raised in fundraising. It’s fair to say that the chapter is in a financially sound place.

Meeting rooms and Social

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Gill Raker Gazette

Student Spotlights—Palouse Unit

Joshua Heishman
M.S. Candidate - Natural Resources
Thesis title: Population dynamics and fishery managementof burbot (Lota lota) in the Kootenai River, Idaho
Bio: In my research, I use demographic data to better understand the complex relationships between native fish populations and management decisions. Specifically, I build models to quantify the contribution of different ecological processes to population vital rates, then use this information toevaluate the effects of resource management strategies.

Caleb Wilson
Undergraduate - Fisheries Resources
Bio: I have a strong and personal connection
to native fish and the habitats that support
them. I enjoy getting to work in the beautiful
places to monitor and help conserve thesefish and fisheries. In terms of research, I
have been interested in learning about age
and growth of fish to evaluate populations tomake important management decisions.

Volume 42, Issue 3

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Gill Raker Gazette

Volume 42, Issue 3

Committee/Subunit Updates
Aquaculture Committee (by Riley Brown)
The Aquaculture Committee worked throughout the winter and spring months recruiting speakers for a symposium at WDAFS in Boise titled “Applying Research in Hatcheries”. The symposium was a success, filling an entire
day’s slot during the meeting. The committee will join forces with the WA/BC chapter this year and help to plan asymposium focused on hatchery evaluation methods at the 2024 joint meeting in Spokane. The committee will also work with the WA/BC chapter to plan an aquaculture workshop focused on fish nutrition. With IDFG hosting
the Northwest Fish Culture Concepts workshop in Boise in 2023, the aquaculture committee is planning to sponsor
one or two students/young professionals to attend the conference free of charge. With funds from the Aquaculture
committee and potentially the TOP Grant, these students will receive a great educational opportunity and get tomeet many fish culture professionals from around the Pacific Northwest.

Native Fish Committee (by Dan Kenney)
The Native Fish Committee began distribution of the “Native Fishes of Idaho” poster to Idaho Department of Education “Science Coaches,” (who would then further distribute the posters to public schools and teachers) in April
and have continued through August. These posters amount to about 40% of the printing run. Further distributionof posters to other educational institutions, state and Federal agencies, Tribes, and other relevant organizations willcontinue through the summer and fall.

The Committee’s newest project is to facilitate acquisition of fish voucher specimens for college/university ichthyology and fisheries classes and labs. Our current activity is soliciting a “wish list” of specimens from the relevant
instructors. It seems likely that the actual capture and preservation of the specimens would best be performed by
Idaho Department of Fish and Game crews (in part because of ease of permitting), but particular individual specimens may be more-easily obtained from other agencies or organizations.
The Committee will once again present the prestigious Richard L. Wallace Native Fish Conservationist of the YearAward at the 2024 annual meeting in Spokane, so please start giving some consideration to nominations; a formal
request for nominations will be made this winter.

Public Education Committee (by Lauri Monnot)
The Idaho Chapter AFS supports the Trout in the Classroom program through an annual support grant administered by the Public Education Committee. Schools can apply for grants to pay for bus transportation for classroom
field trips to learn about aquatic resources and release trout raised in Idaho Trout, Steelhead, or Kokanee in theClassroom programs. This year field trip grants were awarded to 11 schools in spring 2023 allowing about 600 students in grades 2-12 to get outside and learn more about fisheries resources. Classrooms got a chance to practiceangling skills, learn to clean and cook fish, tour fish hatcheries, visit education centers, and participate in educational activities mentored by fisheries professionals.

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Volume 42, Issue 3

Other 2023-2024 Fisheries Meetings Of Interest
Northwest Fish Culture Concepts 72nd Annual Meeting
The 2023 Northwest Fish Culture Concepts Meeting in Boise, Idaho
will be held December 5-7 at the Riverside Hotel. This meeting isbeing hosted by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game and supported by the Fish Culture Section of The American Fisheries Society. The final deadline for paper submission is Friday October 27,
2023. Registration is now open for participants and vendors. Additional information about the meeting can be found here. If you havequestions about the meeting please email Beau Gunter(beau.gunter@idfg.idaho.gov).

9th World Fisheries Congress
Fish and Fisheries at the Food-Water-Energy Nexus will be the theme for the
9th World Fisheries Congress in Seattle, Washington from 3-9 March 2024.
Organized through the World Council of Fisheries Societies, every four years
delegates from around the world meet to exchange ideas and perspectives about
new research, emerging issues, scientific breakthroughs, and governance related
to fisheries science, industry, conservation, and management. More information
may be found at: World Fisheries Congress 2024 – 3-9 March 2024, Seattle,
Washington, USA

2024 ID/WA/BC Joint Meeting

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Volume 42, Issue 3

Other 2023-2024 Fisheries Meetings Of Interest
Covenant of the Salmon People
Join the Idaho Salmon Partnership for a screening of Covenant of the
Salmon People on September 12 from 7 to 930 pm at ISU’s Bengal Theater. For more information: Covenant of the Salmon People – Pocatello,
ID – Idaho Conservation League.

Covenant of the Salmon People is a 60-minute documentary portrait of the
Nez Perce Tribe as they continue to carry out their ancient promise toprotect the Chinook salmon. The film explores the intertwined fate of
the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce), salmon, and the landscape from which both
evolved. The Nez Perce people are the oldest documented civilizationin North America, with archaeological sites along Idaho’s Salmon River dating back 16,500 years. Today the Tribe is facing the extirpation of
their most prized salmon species despite decades of recovery efforts.
The widespread construction of dams across their Traditional lands
have continued to challenge salmon recovery.
Proceeds and donations collected at this event will go directly towards event costs and to the Nez Perce Tribe.
This event is not sponsored by Idaho State University.

Join ICAFS EXCOM in 2024
ICAFS relies on volunteers to make the Idaho Chapter a success. ICAFS’s Executive Committee is the core ofthat volunteer team. Volunteering as an Executive Committee officer is a rewarding opportunity to expand yourknowledge of the Idaho Chapter and further your fisheries career. We are looking for candidates to run for officein 2024. Interested in what officer opportunities exist? .... Please contact Rob Ryan at rob.ryan@idfg.idaho.gov tofind out.

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VolumeVolume31,42,Issue
Issue 33Gill Raker Gazette
Newsletter of the Idaho Chapter of the American Fisheries Society

Gill Raker GazetteExecutive Committee

President
Kevin Meyer
Phone: 208-854-8916
kevin.meyer@idfg.idaho.gov

President-Elect
Lauren Andrews
Phone: 208-484-7984
laurendrews1@gmail.com

Vice President
Joe Kozfkay
Phone: 208-697-1117
joe.kozfkay@idfg.idaho.gov

Past President
Rob Van Kirk
Phone: 208-881-3407
rob@henrysfork.org

Treasurer
Jesse McCane
Phone: 208-939-6713
jesse.mccane@idfg.idaho.gov

Secretary
Eric Stark
Phone: 208-816-0314
eric.stark@idfg.idaho.gov

Nominations Chair
Rob Ryan
Phone: 208-215-8652
rob.ryan@idfg.idaho.gov

Portneuf Student Unit President
Adam Zambie
adamzambie@isu.edu

The EXCOM wants your ideas!
Please do not hesitate to contact any
EXCOM member about questions or ideas.

Palouse Student Unit President
Courtnie Ghere
courtnie.ghere@gmail.com

BYU Idaho Student Unit
President
Robert Gregoryrobegreg16@gmail.com

This is your Chapter!