Document text
Oregon Trout loses local rep Fund-raising push prompts Henry's departure By MARK FREEMAN The Medford-based field coordinator for Oregon Trout has resigned, saying her job for the wild-fish advocacy group had become too steeped in fund-raising work. Ashley Henry, 30, stepped away Friday from her job as the first coordinator of Oregon Trout's Southwest Oregon Field Office, the only satellite office for the 4,000-member group that is based in Portland. "What I saw coming at me was increasing fund-raising responsibility," Henry said. "That's not the direction I wanted to go. I got in to be an activist." Henry's departure prompts Oregon Trout staff to take a second look at the field office they opened two years ago. Oregon Trout Director Geoff Pampush said the group will meet with community leaders in Medford next month to discuss if the one-person office needs to remain, and if so, how to find enough money to operate it. "My guess is, we'll keep the office," Pampush said. "The larger question is the face, structure and function of the office a whole. "My perception is a large community like southwest Oregon can support a small office," he said. "We need to see if there's some financial support in the hills there." Oregon Trout is a non-profit group exerting itself in most issues involving wild fish, such as stream protection, water withdrawals, fish passage, fishing rules and other resource matters. Oregon Trout's two main programs in Jackson and Josephine counties are Salmon Watch and Riverkeeper. Salmon Watch is a teaching curriculum designed to foster appreciation for wild rivers and fish among middle and high school students. When Henry started, the curriculum was in eight classrooms. It is now in 20 classrooms. The Riverkeeper program targets stream improvements in the Rogue River basin, with such projects as door-to-door canvassing of riverside homes to help educate landowners about riparian projects and tree-planting projects like one last month along Wagner Creek in Talent. Henry has also kept involved in helping shape regulatory policies in everything from agriculture to sport-fishing. But the coordinator's post has evolved into one that now is about 50 percent fund-raising, 15 percent overseeing educational programs and 35 percent conservation activities, Pampush said. "That's not quite the right balance for Ashley," Pampush said. "Fund-raising is not for everyone." Oregon Trout's southwest Oregon activities have centered around the Rogue Basin, and with basin residents' "distinct way of viewing the world," the group needs a local field office to be effective here, Pampush said. Oregon Trout will hold its meetings with community leaders in late January to discuss what people here want Oregon Trout to work on, and how to get money to do it, Pampush said. Henry said the group needs to keep its Rogue Valley presence because all-volunteer groups like the Rogue Flyfishers Association cannot keep an eye on all the issues affecting wild fish. "There are good fly-fishing clubs, but those folks are volunteers," Henry said. "They have jobs and families. "There needs to be someone who is professionally responsible for being a voice for native fish," she said. Henry came to Oregon Trout in 1998 from the Rogue Group Sierra Club, where she worked on water-quality issues since August 1997. Henry, who lives in Ashland, does not have a new job yet. She hopes to remain in the area. "We're sorry to see Ashley go," Pampush said. "She leaves on good terms." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA