The Department doesn’t seem to do a good job offering volunteer opportunities at a lot of these hatcheries. I’ve seen a few posts for various facilities across the state over the years on social media, but if they’re short on budget/staffing, this would be an excellent opportunity.

With the increasing population and interest in fishing on diminishing returns, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lottery type system for Steelhead or Salmon in the future, similar to hunting. Volunteer hours in ways such as this or habitat work could be used to earn more “points” to improve odds of being drawn for these fisheries.

As a side note, I personally believe it should be a REQUIREMENT for guides or anyone making an income off of these fish’s backs to have a prescribed number of volunteer hours annually. Like that’d ever happen.