For those of us at The Freshwater Trust, water is more than a job. Our ties to the river run deep, and our staff story series is meant to share those personal connections with our supporters, partners, followers and friends.
River Runner will introduce you to Jeff Fisher, habitat monitoring coordinator for The Freshwater Trust. Fisher collects and analyzes critical pieces of data for our habitat restoration and flow restoration programs. But when he’s not waist deep in the river, he’s following its bends on foot.
“My first trail run began from the Salmon River trailhead, which lies in the shadow of Mount Hood in the central cascades. It was decided that we were going to go six miles or so, but something primal clicked almost instantly as my level of awareness was heightened by the environmental stimuli that was flooding my soul, at a pace that I had never experienced before. The protruding roots, slippery rocks, swaying cedar limbs and dew soaked spider webs that I had to navigate and leap over demanded that I was completely in the present. The sound of water crashing over countless boulders, as the river navigated through the unforgiving roughness of its channel, enriched my sense of hearing. The sight of salmon spawning in the margins of the river had me so mesmerized at times I almost ran off trail and into the river. My need to see what was around the next bend had aroused a curiosity that was hard not to pursue. This was nothing short of amazing.”
– Jeff Fisher
