Seaside, Astoria, Tillamook Bay, The Wilson, The Trask, The Nestucca, The Nehalem, The Necanicum, Big Creek,
Youngs Bay.........

The Ifish Carcass Event! Planting fish cakes in the East Fork of The Trask November 18th (The day of the Civil War) Special Thanks to: ZaQ, (Coordinator) John Casteel (Head Step Biologist, ODFW) Bill Monroe (The Daily Oregonian Outdoors Editor) And all the wonderful volunteers from Ifish.net!

We met at the O.D.F.W office at 7:30 A.M on a brisk, (25 degree) Saturday morning on Nov. 18th, 2000. John Casteel met us there, signed us up, and put us to work! John explained the operations and the value of this program, which is to enrich salmon streams, utilizing surplus hatchery salmon carcasses.
	When our team of about 30 volunteers pulled in at the Trask Pond, John showed us the totes we were to put the frozen fish in to haul up to the East Fork to disperse. These silvers had been taken from The Trask Hatchery earlier in the fall, and had been frozen for this purpose. We had approximately 400 fish to work with, and it took us no time at all to have them in the totes and ready to go.
We formed a sort of assembly line from the freezer to the truck, layering fish after fish, until the freezer was empty.
	We had plenty of people for this process! People visited, laughed, and had a good time.
Up the road we went, stopping at different locations along the road. It was a bright, beautiful day in the forest. Volunteers of all ages got into the fun. Shown here are Jerry Shipe's daughters getting in on the fish slinging. It really was great fun picking out little places to put the fish. John had warned us to not put them directly in the water, because they would immediately float down the river like a bobber. So we wedged them in trees, under rocks... There were fish hanging like Christmas ornaments everywhere!
	Bill Hedlund takes a moment to reflect on the beauty of the upper reaches of the East Fork of the Trask. I don't know his thoughts, but he has fished the rivers of Tillamook for many years, and this picture, this moment, grabbed me.
John Casteel was available through the entire morning to answer questions.
	With the job finished, people still stayed.... We visited, discussed fishing, hunting, and the Civil War Game!

A great time in the forest.
An appropriate way to give Thanks.

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