Are you a college student, working professional, or simply interested in getting outside. Mid-Columbia Fisheries is offering a "dedicated volunteer program." This program offers the opportunity to plug into an amazing community of fisheries professionals who work to preserve a beautiful endangered fish. It is more involved than a single volunteer event but offers incredible flexibility to sign up for the activities that most interest you! We work in incredibly beautiful places, and we want to show you. This program requires upfront training and signing up for at least 3 activities from July through October. Of course, you can sign up for more! We will be providing fuel reimbursement for travel to and from locations (so plan some exploring around an area you otherwise wouldn't go into).
Some of the most fulfilling work that MCF and partners perform is emergency rescues of Bull Trout in dewatering areas. You will come out with agency professionals at night to rescue Bull Trout which will soon run out of water!
Redd surveys are simply hiking! Except you are walking the river instead of a trail. This work is repeated annually across established areas, and involves some beautiful terrain! Different areas require different levels of fitness, but overall people should come ready to walk in the river.
You see them everywhere! They are illegal! People use them to cool down in the heat of summer but this keeps fish from getting to cooler waters. Help us educate and remove these structures (you don't need to volunteer with us to remove a rock dam).
Additional night-time work! Come snorkel with us as we assess population dynamics in a few key areas! This requires additional safety training and at-least 2 demographic surveys as a bank-observer.
These surveys help establish pre and post-restoration metrics. If you are limited in nighttime availability, these surveys occur during the day and occur before night rescue activities to identify rescue locations. Limited seasonally
A large component of MCF is to get out to let people know about Bull Trout. Identification, threats, projects, and simply being present in the watershed. We are always representing at a professional level, and our volunteers would be included in this.
In 2024, Mid-Columbia Fisheries will be holding a volunteer appreciation party for all volunteers regardless of the times volunteered. This may or may not line up with a Mid-Columbia Fisheries beer release event, so get your volunteer days in and stay tuned!
Featured Volunteers
"I chose to volunteer with Mid-Columbia Fisheries with the intent to learn more about local conservation efforts and directly participate in the preservation of wild fish habitat. From the beginning, the team was eager to get me involved, and their enthusiasm and breadth of knowledge made field work both fun and engaging. I got to fully appreciate the planning and execution behind wild fish conservation, and learned just how tenuous some of these river systems and fish species are. The field work led by Mid-Columbia Fisheries is critical to long term sustenance of these habitats, and I was grateful to be a part of that long-term vision. As both an outdoor recreationalist and angler, I have a renewed appreciation for these wild spaces and the people that work to protect them. I'm excited to continue volunteering and learning alongside this organization!"
TJ Westre, Bull Trout Volunteer 2023