For the past 17 years Oregon Fish and Wildlife has held an annual get together for all current and prospective hosts and volunteers. I guess in the strict sense of the phrase it’s not really a rally because lots of ODFW volunteers don’t have an RV. But for us it kind of feels like a rally. ODFW staff hatchery managers and crew spend a few days recognizing current volunteers and recruiting new folks.
Because of our circumstance and proximity we helped some this year putting it on. Mostly just some grunt work and driving. Kat spent the better part of a day pedaling her bicycle all over the campground getting people in the right RV site and letting them know what was up.
Mostly we met some friends and made some new ones. There was one potluck and the rest of the meals were catered. There were several interesting speakers talking about ODFW related subjects and prize drawings for ODFW gear and such. You can’t volunteer without the T-shirt and the coffee mug. I’m developing quite a wardrobe of volunteer shirts. I entered the Pro-Division casting contest and (drum roll here) finished in second place. Pro-Division in this case meant that you had held a fishing pole at some point in your life. I think Tom won, but I got another coffee mug. After Tom it was just a case of who was luckiest. That turned out to be me.
There was a tour of the hatchery which didn’t seem like it would be a big deal, because we had worked at one, but it turned out to be very interesting. They happened to be harvesting salmon and collecting markers that had been implanted in the fish for tracking and study. They were knocking fish in the head and cutting off the snout if they were tagged and then put on ice to be sold to a fish buyer. Just a baseball bat and something like a paper cutter for cutting off the nose. Kat didn’t like that part much. Understand though that the life of these fish was over anyway. These were spawning salmon and after spawning they die. This way ODFW gets some return on raising all these fish. Seems fair to me!
Because of our circumstance and proximity we helped some this year putting it on. Mostly just some grunt work and driving. Kat spent the better part of a day pedaling her bicycle all over the campground getting people in the right RV site and letting them know what was up.
Mostly we met some friends and made some new ones. There was one potluck and the rest of the meals were catered. There were several interesting speakers talking about ODFW related subjects and prize drawings for ODFW gear and such. You can’t volunteer without the T-shirt and the coffee mug. I’m developing quite a wardrobe of volunteer shirts. I entered the Pro-Division casting contest and (drum roll here) finished in second place. Pro-Division in this case meant that you had held a fishing pole at some point in your life. I think Tom won, but I got another coffee mug. After Tom it was just a case of who was luckiest. That turned out to be me.
There was a tour of the hatchery which didn’t seem like it would be a big deal, because we had worked at one, but it turned out to be very interesting. They happened to be harvesting salmon and collecting markers that had been implanted in the fish for tracking and study. They were knocking fish in the head and cutting off the snout if they were tagged and then put on ice to be sold to a fish buyer. Just a baseball bat and something like a paper cutter for cutting off the nose. Kat didn’t like that part much. Understand though that the life of these fish was over anyway. These were spawning salmon and after spawning they die. This way ODFW gets some return on raising all these fish. Seems fair to me!
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