Richard Marovich
Elmira, Calif.

Ten years ago, the lower Putah Creek in northern California would become a dusty ATV trail in the arid months between August and November. But in 2003, after three years of work, streamkeeper Richard Marovich witnessed the largest salmon run documented in the creek’s history. Marovich was appointed streamkeeper for Putah Creek when a decade-long lawsuit was settled in 2000, and a California judge ordered the Solano County Water Agency to maintain a perennial flow in the creek, awarding the Putah Creek Council an annual budget for preservation. As the Putah Creek streamkeeper, Marovich is in charge of monitoring the stream, organizing restoration projects, and raising financial support. “It was a chance for a more hands-on approach to science,” Marovich says, explaining that his previous work was mostly theoretical. In the past eight years he has worked overtime to raise more than $5 million to restore the creek. Marovich says that flyfishermen were proactive in initiating projects to revitalize the stream. “The flyfishermen get it,” he says. Now they are reaping the benefits of their hard work. Marovich describes Putah creek, which is stocked with 20,000 trout annually, as a trophy trout stream. The stream also supports healthy populations of salmon and there are indications steelhead are taking hold. Although Marovich boasts that “more progress has been made than I ever dreamed possible,” he says there is more work to be done before Putah creek is a self-sustaining system. And while restoration projects and fundraising take up too much of his time now to let him relax on the water, he looks forward to the day when he will be able to do more “fish monitoring” with a fly rod from the comfort of his kayak. --Richard Bach

Labels: Heroes of the Week

Joe Stefko
Greensburg, Pa.

Diplomas don’t impress Joe Stefko. The 61-year-old Wildlife Education Supervisor for the Pennsylvania Game commission has been working outdoors long enough to know that a degree in environmental science or wildlife biology doesn’t usually prepare someone to tag a black bear or shoot a rifle.

“I see the colleges as puppy mills,” he says. “The students go through four years and they have the academics for wildlife biology, but they don’t have the hands-on experience.”

Stefko has provided that hands-on experience for more than fifty students since 1999, through a Pennsylvania Game Commission internship program that he started and oversees. Every year, Stefko accepts applications from star students at local colleges who are considering careers as conservation professionals.

“Our future is in the young people,” Stefko says. “If I can get one of these students into a conservation-related job, then we’ve done something great for the environment.”

Stefko’s students don’t file paperwork or make copies, rather, they’re out in the field, anesthetizing bears, maintaining trails, and helping out with wildlife studies. Stefko likes to emphasize oral communication skills, so he makes his interns give presentations to children at sportsman clubs, teaching them the basics of conservation, hunting safety and wildlife biology. Not all the interns go on to careers in conservation--past interns have ended up as stem cell researchers and correctional officers--but that’s okay with Stefko.

“Some of the kids who come to program will never hunt again, but at least they’ve seen what it’s like to shoot a .22 or a bow,” he says. “And maybe 15 or 20 years down the road, they buy a house and they look out the window and they see a hunter in blaze orange, and they don’t call 911. We’ll have someone on our side that’s not anti-gun and anti-hunting.” -- Spencer Kornhaber

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Molly Costin
Wadena, Minn.

"From the day we were walking, my siblings and I have been hunting and fishing," says Molly Costin. But Costin, 26, has noticed that for most kids today, the ability to walk rarely comes with a guarantee that they'll be heading outdoors.

"I have 11 nieces and nephews, and a lot hunt and fish," she says. "But I talk to them and I hear that their friends don't. [Hunting and fishing] is not normal anymore."

When Costin, a Soil and Water Conservation District technician, was only 23 years old she started the Wadena Conservation and Wildlife Expo, an event focused on sharing hunting, fishing and conservation traditions in Costin's small Minnesota community. Using games, demonstrations, crafts, and prizes, Costin aims to show children just how important and fun natural resources can be. She also arranges for veteran hunters to teach archery lessons, zookeepers to showcase live animals, and conservation experts to give presentations. Last year even featured a race that required participants to navigate an obstacle course, suit-up in hunting gear, and assemble a tree stand.

Though Wadena is a community of less than 5,000 people, more than 2,200 came through last year's expo, an increasing proportion of which are children. She hopes to repeat that success at this year's event, which will be held from Aug. 22 to 24 at the Wadena County Fairgrounds.

"We want to get the children interested," says Costin. "We're trying to get them to know that conservation is an important issue, and they can all do something to impact it." -- Spencer Kornhaber

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Mark Rubbert
Prineville, Ore.
About 10 years ago, Mark Rubbert bought a run down cattle ranch adjacent to public hunting land, and kicked the cows off. "There wasn't a blade of grass on the place," says Rubbert. He started transforming the 5,000 acre ranch into a place where the area elk could winter. Restoring the land by having controlled burns, planting native trees and grasses, and controlling erosion on the properties roads and stream banks. "We've seen at least 10 times as many elk, quail have come back, and our deer population is thriving." With the help of the National Resources Conservation Service, he has been able to bring cattle back to the ranch and maintain a healthy habitat for wintering elk.

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Brian and Michelle Nelson
East Grand Forks, Minn.
Brian Nelson describes his family as an “outdoor family.” Along with his wife, Michelle, and six kids, The Nelsons spend their free time fishing for bass and hunting for anything from pheasants to big game, and eat venison three to four times a week. In 1999, Michelle got involved with the Red River Valley chapter of Pheasants Forever. She and Brian started helping with the chapter’s banquet, but when the chapter was about to shut down, the Nelsons decided to take over. Since reviving the chapter, the Nelsons have raised money to put together youth hunts and provide local wildlife with food sources. –Erin Kelley

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Rick Meyer
New Liberty, Iowa
As a full-time farmer, Rick Meyer has grown up with an appreciation for nature and wildlife and an even greater appreciation for conservation. Since most of Iowa is fence-to-fence farmland, Meyer dedicated 120 acres in rural Scott County to providing wildlife with a place to call its own.
Meyer installed three ponds and seven wetlands on the land. He also worked to establish native prairie grasses and plant a thousands trees.
“I enjoy putting away areas for wildlife,” says Meyer.
In the future, Meyer hopes to build another four wetlands on a 50-acre piece of property he wants to develop, as well as maintaining the areas he has so far. –Erin Kelly

Labels: Heroes of the Week