Employees of the Fort are well-known for their extra-curricular activities. Bartenders, brewers, accountants, managers, and drivers are also artists, woodworkers, designers, writers and farmers. When we’re not creating useful things for Fort George and for ourselves, we’re sometimes doing useful things around Astoria and the North Coast. Fort employees regularly volunteer for local nonprofits and they don’t have to take time off to do it.
In January, two Fort employees and members of Rainland Fly Casters, helped the North Coast Watershed Association plant over 300 trees and native shrubs on the banks of Elk Creek, a tributary to Big Creek. The Upper Big Creek Watershed area is crucial habitat for salmon, trout, and other native species. The trees were donated by a local nursery and carried down to the planting site by Rainland club members.
Healthy watershed, Healthy Community
The North Coast Watershed Association has worked to restore, preserve and repair our coastal waterways for over 20 years, connecting local landowners, private companies and public entities with resources, education and funding for large-scale restoration projects on local rivers and streams. This day of re-planting with the Rainland Fly Casters is one of many stages in a long-term project coordinated by the North Coast Watershed Association to repair and preserve hundreds of miles of riverbanks and riparian zones. Restoring fish habitat in this area so that juvenile fish have dense cover to grow and returning adults have safe spawning ground means years of work and coordinated action by volunteers, contractors, logging companies, landowners and the NCWA.
One Fort employee was along for a day of tree planting, but the other has spent the last 4 years serving on the board of Rainland Fly Casters – a fly fishing club founded in Astoria in 1981. The club hosts monthly meetings, educational events, and fishing meet-ups as well as talks and lectures on restoration, conservation and fishing on the North Coast.
Rainland Flay Casters & the North Coast Watershed Association
Rainland meets at Fort George every second Wednesday of the month and hosts Fly Tying instruction nights at Bridge & Tunnel Bottleshop on the first Tuesday. All meetings are open to the public. Tuesday, June 30th is Benefit Night for Rainland Fly Casters at Fort George – 10% of all dine-in and to-go sales will go directly to the club.
NCWA is a frequent contributor to Fort George’s Thursday Lecture Series and a beneficiary of the Fort’s partnership with 1% for the Planet.
Fort George employees clock in for their regular work every day but sometimes, they clock in for a paid shift volunteering for a local nonprofit. From giving blood at a Red Cross Blood Drive to serving on the school board, joining a beach clean-up, volunteering at the animal shelter or planting trees and shrubs to shade future fish populations in the Big Creek Watershed – Fort employees (full-time or part-time, regardless of how long they’ve worked here) can clock in and get paid their regular wage for up to 16 hours a year of volunteer work.
Many employees use their hours for one-off volunteer events, but most employees who cash in their hours are putting in a lot more than what they’re getting back. We’re up to 57 volunteer hours paid this year and hundreds of hours spent by employees of the Fort volunteering for nonprofits in the community. Regular paid volunteering hours let employees take extra time off their scheduled shifts or salaried work hours and still get paid.
Employees have more time, nonprofits get a few extra hands, the community benefits from the work of the nonprofits, and we get a stronger, more resilient Astoria.
It’s a win, win, win, win, win.
You can check out this Short Video of Rainland’s Planting Day, filmed by Fishing with AJ.
