By Grace Peterman, Education & Outreach Coordinator with NWF and ANWS
November 23, 2022
This article was originally published on National Wildlife Federation’s Blog and is copied here for reference.
O n a gray, drizzly morning at the end of October, a small fleet of volunteers departed the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (ODFW) forested campus. Each carried a cooler with hundreds of precious passengers: Chinook salmon eggs, tenderly wrapped in moist towels, destined to delight students across Portland.
It was Egg Delivery Day — a fall event that volunteers and students alike look forward to all year. Our Fish Eggs to Fry volunteers, with different backgrounds, professions, and ages, came together on October 25th united by a single purpose: spreading passion for salmon conservation.
“Bringing the next generation of salmon to the next generation of stewards was very rewarding.” - Steve Herff, Confluence AmeriCorps Member
Volunteers underpin the program's success, setting up aquarium equipment, delivering eggs to schools, and providing classroom presentations and field trip assistance. On Fall 2022 Egg Delivery Day, 28 volunteers delivered 18,000 eggs to 90 schools across the Portland area and beyond, impacting the lives of some 7,000 students.
Volunteers represented ODFW, the Tualatin Valley Chapter of the NW Steelheaders, the Sandy River Chapter of NW Steelheaders, Get Hooked Foundation, Fishers of Men, Clackamas River Trout Unlimited, and Confluence Environmental Center. “Bringing the next generation of salmon to the next generation of stewards was very rewarding,” said volunteer Steve Herff on Egg Delivery Day. “Seeing how the next generation can take the reins and carry us to a better tomorrow was inspiring.”
We are grateful to these partners, our volunteers, and to the salmon and trout themselves who make Fish Eggs to Fry possible. By allowing students to develop a personal relationship with these species through a hands-on learning experience, we can spark a lifelong commitment to wildlife conservation in the next generation. In the words of Baba Dioum, “In the end, we will conserve only what we love; we will love only what we understand, and we will understand only what we are taught.”
Check out @NWFOregon’s Facebook page for more photos from Egg Delivery Day!
