Today, Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA) and a team of union volunteers are holding Take Kids Fishing Day events in Wisconsin and Ohio as part of National Fishing and Boating Week. A third Take Kids Fishing day event will be held later this summer in Las Vegas. The Wisconsin event, at Pettibone Lagoon in Lacrosse, is open to the public and is sponsored by the Western Wisconsin AFL-CIO. At Walter C. Best Wildlife Preserve in Munson, Ohio, the Bricklayers (BAC) Ohio District Council and BAC Local 16 will host children with varying physical and mental disabilities.

Laura Bliss Morris from the Union Sportsmen's Alliance (USA) sends us this report.

John Sferazo, a retired Ironworkers Local 361 member and longtime member of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance will be profiled for his extraordinary contributions to conservation in the June 2012 issue of Field & Stream—the world’s leading outdoor magazine.

Since suffering physical and emotional trauma as a Ground Zero volunteer on 9/11, Sferazo has worked to provide free hunting opportunities for first responders and veterans. With the support of 30 organizations, his nonprofit group American Greenlands Restoration Inc. has turned a former 1,000-acre asphalt plant site in Maine back into a thriving forest habitat.

On this week’s episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” Dan McNally, Fred Popplewell and Kevin Crum, members of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) Local 597 in Chicago—and longtime fishing buddies—head out on a Lake Michigan trout and salmon fishing adventure with show host Tom Ackerman.

On next week’s episode (March 15) of “Brotherhood Outdoors," Bob Krien, a member of Bricklayers (BAC) Local 4 in Wisconsin, heads to southwest Montana to hunt mule deer with the show’s host, Tom Ackerman.

On this week’s episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” Lee Hengsteler, a member of Sheet Metal Workers (SMWIA) Local 359 in Arizona, gets to realize a dream he’s had since he was 6 years old: He heads to Montana to hunt elk.

“Brotherhood Outdoors,” the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA‘s) union-dedicated hunting and fishing TV show, was honored with the 2011 Sportsman Choice Award as best combination (hunting and fishing) show. More than 140,000 viewers of the Sportsman Channel cast ballots for the network’s best outdoors show

Mention Louisiana swamps and likely the first thing that comes to mind is alligators—big alligators and lots of them. Wayne “Kip” Benoit, a United Steelworkers (USW) Local 750 member from Boutte, La., knows his way around swamps and gators and, in the latest episode of “Brotherhood Outdoors,” guides show host Tom Ackerman on an airboat alligator hunt.

“Brotherhood Outdoors,” the unique hunting and fishing television series of the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance (USA), kicks off its second season Thursday night on the Sportsman Channel, with Indiana Ironworkers member Jessica Reagor on a California wild hog hunt.

More than 30 young people with varying physical and intellectual disabilities had the opportunity to take part in Ohio’s Youth Deer Gun Season earlier this month, thanks to the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA) Boots on the Ground program and 50 volunteers from Bricklayers (BAC) locals 7 and 39 in southeastern Ohio.

Laura Bliss Morris sends this report on the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s big conservation fundraising shooting contest.

Nearly 200 shooters—of all skill levels—attended the Union Sportsmen’s Alliance’s (USA‘s) third annual Kansas City Clay Shooting Triathlon on Oct. 8.