Oregon fish a step ahead.

Byline: Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

It seemed like a small step when the 1981 Oregon Legislature passed House Bill 2992, creating a public involvement program to help salmon and steelhead.

Twenty-five years later, it is apparent that creation of the "Salmon Trout Enhancement Program" - commonly referred to as STEP - was actually one giant leap for fish.

For STEP's footprints can now be found almost anywhere in Oregon that there are fish and fishermen.

Catch a fin-clipped winter steelhead in the Siuslaw River or Lake Creek? It was hatched from eggs gathered by STEP volunteers, and perhaps reared by them as well.

Hook a fall chinook salmon in the Umpqua, Coos or Coquille river estuaries? Odds are good it was produced at a hatchery run by STEP volunteers.

Land a pan-sized trout in a remote Cascade lake? It may well have been carried to that lake as a fingerling in the backpack of a STEP volunteer.

More than 2.2 million hours have been logged by volunteers working on hundreds of STEP projects since the program's inception, according to Gary Galovich, an Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) biologist who serves as statewide STEP coordinator. Of those hours, 1.7 million were donated by adults, the rest by scouts and other youths.

In addition to their time, STEP volunteers donate their own travel expenses, and often provide needed materials as well. In the 2005 fiscal year, for example, volunteers logged nearly 140,000 miles and provided about $250,000 worth of materials, in addition to 130,000 hours of labor.

All that grass-roots effort on behalf of salmon and trout populations will be celebrated at the 2006 STEP Conference, to be held Friday and Saturday at Reedsport High School in Reedsport. The event is hosted by the Gardiner-Reedsport-Winchester Bay STEP club.

In addition to tours of local STEP projects, informational displays and presentations on a variety of fish-related topics, the conference will include a salmon derby Friday and Saturday, and a youth fishing event Saturday morning at Lake Marie. The conference concludes Saturday night with a banquet, a silent auction fund-raiser and a stage performance based on the works of humorist author Patrick McManus.

While providing a forum for STEP volunteers to compare notes, share ideas and learn new things, the conference also offers members of the public an opportunity to learn about the program and about all the various ways they can get involved.

About half of all the hours donated to STEP last year were for the 109 "fish culture" projects underway in the state. That work involved collecting broodstock, incubating eggs, rearing fish, "acclimating" smolts so they would return to pre-determined locations as adults, stocking fish and assisting at hatcheries.

The largest STEP hatchery project is in the Coos/Coquille area, which accounted for about 4 million of the 6 million chinook, coho and steelhead released by program participants in 2005.

But STEP's affect on fish production is even larger than that because volunteers assist with fish that are technically produced by state-run hatcheries.

In the Siuslaw River basin, for example, the approved fish management plan calls for the release of 100,000 winter steelhead smolts annually. Of those 15 percent are to come from the STEP hatchery on Letz Creek, six miles southwest of Lorane; the rest are to be reared at a state hatchery.

But the eggs hatched and reared by the state come from adults trapped and spawned by members of the Florence STEP club.

"Every single winter steelhead (in the Siuslaw system) that is clipped is there because volunteers were active," says Cindy Heller of Eugene, chairman of the 13-member state STEP Advisory Committee.

Heller says the contribution of the small hatchery she helps fellow volunteers run on Letz Creek goes far beyond the number of returning adult steelhead it produces for anglers.

"I think the advantage of the Letz Creek hatchery is that volunteers and visitors can see the entire process throughout the 14-month cycle we're working with, and anytime people get to see fish close-up, they get pretty excited about it," Heller said. "It's an excellent tool to educate people and to motivate people. ... The more they know about fish and fishery issues, the more willing they are to volunteer for additional programs."

Other projects STEP volunteers routinely help with around the state include inventorying and monitoring fish populations. That work may involve spawning surveys, snorkel surveys, fish trapping, using telemetry to monitor fish movements, aquatic habitat surveys or conducting fish passage inventories. STEP was involved in 107 inventory and monitoring projects last year, according to the program's 2005 annual report.

Other categories of STEP projects include habitat restoration and education.

"We have a classroom incubator program that's been extremely popular," Galovich said. The classroom hatchboxes allow students to observe the incubation of eyed eggs and to release unfed fry into the wild. The program also gives students "a good sense of how sensitive fish are to water quality, temperature and oxygen levels," he said.

While volunteers provide most of the sweat equity in STEP projects, all the work is overseen by a professional fish biologist. There are 10 STEP biologists stationed around the state, plus a statewide coordinator.

ODFW's budget for STEP during the 2005 federal fiscal year was $1.16 million. Three-fourths of that came from the federal Sport Fish Restoration Fund, with the balance provided by the state of Oregon.

In some communities, the biologists work with STEP "clubs" that formed in response to the 1981 law specifically to tackle fish propagation projects. But in many areas, volunteers are recruited from existing fishing clubs or conservation organizations.

Roseburg STEP biologist Laura Jackson, for example, works with the Gardiner-Reedsport-Winchester Bay STEP club in the lower Umpqua area and with the Umpqua Fishermen's Association in the upper Umpqua Basin.

"Both are very active, and both are among the longest-running STEP groups in the state," Jackson said.

The Eugene-Springfield area doesn't have a STEP club, but the local chapter of the Northwest Steelheaders runs the Letz Creek hatchery, and members of local fly-fishing clubs and other groups routinely volunteer for projects organized by Upper Willamette STEP biologist Erik Moberly. This week, for example, STEP volunteers are helping improve the rainbow trout fishery at Gold Lake by netting brook trout and moving them to other waters.

Does all this volunteerism really make a difference?

One need look no farther than the Siuslaw River to find the answer.

"Prior to 1995, the Siuslaw River had some of the poorest runs of salmon on the Oregon Coast," according to the 2005 STEP Annual Report. What's more, ODFW budget woes led to staff cuts in the Florence field office in 1995, meaning the state would have little manpower available to work on improving the runs.

Since then, the report points out, fish management changes "in large part made possible by the efforts of volunteers" have resulted in a strong rebound in coho salmon, while chinook salmon numbers "have reached record levels," and cutthroat trout "have recovered so well that angling for them is now legal throughout much of the basin."

Significant steps, all. And all are in addition to the volunteer-produced winter steelhead fishery - which draws an estimated 60,000 angler hours per year, according to STEP.

IF YOU WANT TO 'STEP' IN.... What: Annual Salmon Trout Enhancement Program (STEP) conference. When: Friday-Saturday, Oct. 13-14 . Where: Reedsport High School, 2260 Longwood Drive, Reedsport. Cost: $30 per person, $40 per family. What's included: Tours of STEP projects, entry in salmon fishing derby, Friday night social featuring hors d'oeuvres oyster bar, Saturday morning youth fishing event, Saturday conference with speakers and presentations on fish-related topics, art show, Saturday night stage performance based on the works of best-selling author Patrick McManus. Optional: Saturday night dinner, $20 per person, silent auction. Details, registration: Full agenda and downloadable registration form available on STEP Web site (www.dfw.state.or.us/STEP). Or pre-register by calling the ODFW office in Roseburg (541-440-3353). Registration at the door is also available.