President Dick Jay called the meeting to order promptly at 12:23, with the ring of the bell and welcomed everyone to today’s meeting.

Casey Allison and Ben Winkler were our greeters today and Ben introduced the members who brought guests:

Gary Pehrson led us in singing “Happy Days Are Here Again”

Deb Theriault gave us some history of the club from 1948-49, more great stuff.

Velma Corson announced that her husband Al will be leaving Wednesday for South Africa and Mozambique to help with the cyclone recovery efforts.

Bill Schilling let us know that his brother Hank who lives in Boston is continuing to have declining health and asked for our thoughts and prayers.

Kevin Murphy let us know that his second son, Kyle finished med school and got into the residency that he wanted in general surgery, he also is engaged and his fiancé is also a doctor.

Our student guest Rebecca Tripp let us know that her pet snake got loose again and requested prayers that they can find it soon.

Steve Loftin nominated all of those who helped at the Food Bank last week. Guy DeWitt, Becky Byron, Miamie Sleep, Jim Porter, Mathis Boyer, Francisco DeLuca, Oscar Chavez, Ben Winkler, Steve Loftin, Dayton Stone (Roosevelt Student), Jeremy Jones, RS, Chad Nelson, Errol Miller, and Carley Applegate;

Liz Becher, District Chair for the Paul Harris Society, presented Paul Harris Society Membership Chevrons and certificates for their gift of $1,000/year. The Rotarians who received these were; Ann Ruble, Bob Barnard, Casey Allison, Lisa Scroggins, Chaz Farnam, Glenn Januska, Richard Schwahn, and Rick Riemann. Congratulations and Thank You!

We inducted a new member today, Charlene Canada, sponsored by Vickie Diamoond, Welcome!

Rebecca Steinhoff gave her classification talk today, she is the Executive Director of the John P. Elbogen Foundation. Before becoming the Executive Director she was involved with the Foundation’s Early Childhood Initiative called Wyoming Kids First. She was born and raised in Wyoming and is an identical triplet, one of her identical sisters lives in Casper so if you see her out and about and she ignores you then it is probably her sister not her. She was the middle of the three and has two other sisters and she falls right in the middle of the five girls so she has some serious middle child syndrome. She grew up in rural Wyoming and has a great fondness for small towns. She got her Bachelor degree from UW in Agriculture Business and Environment and Natural Resources. She met her husband while at UW. She went to Washington D.C. where she got her Master’s Degree in Public Administration then returned home to Wyoming. She was a SOM for Goshen County Rotary Club and attended RYLA and served as a junior counselor for RYLA for a few years, this created a love for Rotary. She lives on Casper Mountain with her husband and their 4 year old daughter. She graduated from leadership Wyoming where she met her sponsor, Bill Schilling. She currently chairs the Governor’s Early Childhood State Advisory Council, she is also the design team chair for an initiative at UW. One of her most favorite activities is being the chairperson for the parent volunteer board for her daughter’s early childhood school.

Dave True reminded us of the upcoming District Conference.

Vickery Hall invited everyone to the Lyric tomorrow night 5:30-7:00 for the Non Profit awards night honoring Rene Kemper of Youth Development Services and Margaret Salisbury of Wyoming Cares.

Lisa Scroggins announced that June 13 will be our next new member orientation so save the date.

Travis Wicks of KWHS was our SOM today, a great young man with a fantastic future!

John Griffith introduced our speaker today, Dan Thompson of the Wyoming Game and Fish Large Carnivore Section. Dan started out giving us some of the history and background on the Grizzly Bear population, in 1975 they were one of the first to be listed as endangered species and we have been working since then to protect and recover the population. We have fully recovered them biologically in 2007 they were delisted then they were relisted after many lawsuits. They are more closely analyzing the data they have been collecting and now can show that they are recovered and they were delisted again in 2017. Then a Federal Judge in Montana relisted them again. So the WY Game and Fish has to consult with the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service to have a management plan for the Bears. He showed us the map with the Demographic Monitoring Area (DMA), which is the area that they focus their monitoring of the species because that is their natural habitat. It is based on what is appropriate habitat and the area that has the means and area large enough to maintain the Bears. When they wander outside of that area there is higher risk of confrontation and problems. The original recovery zone has been expanded as the population has grown. There is a very multifaceted group that works together to manage the population, State and Federal Agencies. They have been doing this management for over four decades now.

Grizzly Bear monitoring is designed to have a good sample of bears so that they can extrapolate the information and better understand the whole population. They have several bears that they have collars on and they monitor movement, measurements, food intake etc. When they capture them to collar or check on them they use a dart to the shoulder to knock them out.

They created observation areas to watch the population as well as flying over the areas to monitor and count new cubs to keep a count on the population. They also monitor the mortality rate so they can manage the population. As some of the bear population moves outside of the DMA they are seeing more polarity with a little less tolerance from some people. Last year they had a Grizzly within the City of Cody in the DQ parking lot and by the end of the day there was a national campaign to save that bear that people named Cody. Outside of Wyoming there are people that know nothing about bears but they are doing campaigns to save them. As the bears expand outside the buffer area they see a lot more conflict with bears attacking people and livestock. From 1992 to current inside the DMA conflicts with people have gone down because the people inside that area understand the bears and are aware of them. He showed us a video of a bear taking down a calf alongside the road. Later that year this particular bear was hit by a car and killed and her cubs are now in a zoo in Nebraska. They use electric fences to keep the bears out of things like storage and garbage. The State has a fund to pay for damage to livestock and property that the bears cause if the owner can show that it was actually a bear that did the damage. They do have a trained predator attack team they dispatch when needed. They do relocate bears unless it is a dangerous bear then they sometimes have to remove them completely. The most important part is their education program that they use to teach people about bears and how to avoid conflict with the bears. They have updated the website, bearwisewyoming.com so check it out. They are dedicated to do what is best for the bears and the people of Wyoming. He said that conservatively there are 700 bears in the DMA according to their outdated system of counting but they feel that there is closer to 1300. With the increase in bears they do see impacts on Elk calves, when the calves are only a couple of weeks old and more vulnerable. They will continue to manage the population and try to get them delisted so that they can control them better.

 

President Dick Jay concluded the meeting at 1:28 letting us know that next week we will be at the Casper Event Center with our very own Glenn Januska informing us about the goings on at the Natrona County Airport.

 

“Be the Inspiration”