Honoring conservation leaders in Niagara County – The Buffalo News

On a day when more than 40 volunteers gathered in Olcott to assemble and float net pens at the Town of Newfane Marina on Saturday morning, many of them a few hours later accepted prestigious awards from the Niagara County Federation of Conservation Clubs at its annual awards banquet in Lockport. Past and present fisheries ambassadors were recognized as well as others involved with shooting sports and protecting the Second Amendment. “We’re all about doing our part to make sure that Lake Ontario is the best fishery that it can be,” said Joe Yaeger, president of the Lake Ontario Trout and Salmon Association, recipient of the Leroy Winn Memorial Award for 2018 Club of the Year. “It’s a collective effort through club members and other volunteers to make sure things like the pen rearing projects happen. Salmon that are stocked in the pens survive better than two to one over the direct stock of fish (dumped directly into the water) and this year every single Niagara County salmon will be held in pens.” Yaeger’s LOTSA club (www.lotsa1.org[1]) also is involved with teaching people to fish during monthly meetings (the first meeting of the year is April 11) and through the salmon school it runs through the Greater Niagara Fishing and Outdoor Expo (www.niagarafishingexpo.com[2]) each January. The show offers angling education for all levels of sportfishing proficiency. The main point person for LOTSA’s pen rearing effort, spilling over into a project at Wilson Harbor, is Capt. Alan Sauerland of Newfane. Thanks to Sauerland’s dedication to enhancing the area’s natural resources, he was named winner of the Milford “Pinky” Robinson Memorial Award. It was an appropriate gesture that tied in nicely with the Winn award. It’s always good to recognize the people who accomplish hidden tasks that benefit a long list of people. Penny Hartman-Lyman of

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