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Oregon Trout fishes for answers Forum will address issue of local field office By Mark Freeman of the Mail Tribune Leaders of the Oregon Trout group are pondering whether to reopen the group's Medford field office as part of a plan to rethink if, how and where to exert its wild-fish advocacy muscles in Southwest Oregon. Oregon Trout closed its Southwest Oregon Field Office in December when Ashley Henry, the office's former coordinator, resigned to pursue other, similar job opportunities that focused more on resource protection and less on fund-raising. Now the state's largest wild fish organization is wondering whether to reopen the office and, if so, what kinds of programs to run out of it and how to raise the money locally to do so. "One of the questions is, what can a state organization best do here?" says Geoff Pampush, executive director of the 6,000-member organization. "Do we bring anything of value here? My guess is that folks in Southwest Oregon think we do." Answers to that and other questions will be addressed in a forum today, when Oregon Trout hosts a daylong planning session with selected members of the Rogue Valley's conservation and fishing community. "I think this will be a fairly free-wheeling and, hopefully, open discussion," Pampush says. "I believe we'll walk away with some very clear messages." Oregon Trout is a nonprofit 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. The Riverkeeper program targets stream improvements in the Rogue River basin. The group has conducted door-to-door canvassing of riverside homes to help educate landowners about riparian projects and tree-planting projects, including one last month along Wagner Creek in Talent. About 20 area residents will meet with Pampush and others at the Bear Creek Corp. for today's meeting. Having a field office that focuses on area projects while keeping locally raised funds close to home is what initially enticed Ken Morrish to become involved with Oregon Trout. Morrish manages the Ashland Outdoor Store, a key backer of area Oregon Trout programs. But that backing has waned as Morrish and others began to believe more of the funds raised here got funneled back to the Portland-based group than what some supporters expected. "We want to work locally on local things," Morrish says. "We care about what's around us. That's the bottom line." The bottom line of his store's financial support will drop, Morrish says, if Oregon Trout loses its local office. "We'd still be supporters," he says, "but in a lesser fashion." Pampush says the notion of "what have you done for me lately" is a common regional response to organizations with more broad, statewide interests. But some of Oregon Trout's statewide efforts on habitat protection and other issues have direct impacts in the Rogue Valley, even though they have been hammered out in the Willamette Valley, he says. "Most of our effort is in policy implementation, and that is good for the whole of the state," Pampush says. "(But) sometimes it doesn't feel like it's trickled down." Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA