2006 May - Volunteer's Corner I
Hatchery Work
Day one, training, it must have been spring; fry in the trays, and we had to learn how to do that and spread feed over the raceway surface, and jump from the geyser when taking down the drain on the old doughboys. Along the way through the day, we hiked up the hill to clear the Berry Creek intake, heard about the waterfall while walking upstream to the Big Creek intake. My turn to spread the feed, I paused while a garter snake slithered through the net and into the upper raceway at its lower gate. Trays of Steelhead and Chinook fry, one tray of a few Scott Creek Coho. Late afternoon there were quail running the road.
Years, winters, once, walking the creek with guys to net fish for spawning, I stepped wrong on a rock and splashed down totally, had to bail on the day, no change of clothes, driving home on the pretty wet side of real damp and a bit hypothermic. After the netting another day, we were standing around at the hatchery and one of us looking up wondered aloud whether that eagle way high up was a bald or a golden.
I got bits of fish science when the NMFS guys started showing up.
There were good times of solitude like on warm summer days back in the redwoods, moving, doing worthy stuff, and a Kingfisher would cry all along flying up Big Creek and later back. The little blue butterflies would pause at wet places in sun where a pool was left from some wet chore. There was that winter when it seemed I got all the storm Saturdays, heavy rain, walking up the creeks anyhow to clear the intakes. The high tech lining on my slicker would wick the wet up the sleeves after it wicked through the unsealed cuff hems. Yeah. I would cook hot canned chili over sterno in that rain.
All in all, a few hundred thousand Salmon and Steelhead got, and are still getting, returned to the water by all of us. Adds up.
