Americorps Volunteer Leads Local Volunteers To Do Special Things For Idaho's Wildlife!

IDAHO FALLS - There is wisdom in the old adage, "It takes one, to know one!" At a recent banquet, IDFG Volunteer Coordinator for the Upper Snake Region Jo Cobb, an AmeriCorps volunteer herself, recognized the efforts of 214 separate individuals who donated over 3,500 hours, valued at $40,000, to IDFG projects benefiting fish and wildlife in the region. Jo Cobb is originally from Southern California and came to Idaho in 2005 to attend Ricks College. She graduated from BYU-Idaho in the spring of 2005 with a bachelor's degree in Biology. She began her term with AmeriCorps in January of 2006. According to their website, "AmeriCorps is a network of local, state, and national service programs that connects more than 70,000 Americans each year in intensive service to meet our country's critical needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment." Her placement with IDFG in Idaho Falls is coordinated via the Clearwater-Palouse Institute out of Moscow, Idaho. According to Cobb, "Volunteers have had the opportunity to help with administration, photography, check stations, spawning, gillnetting, teaching kids to fish, installing weirs, and other fisheries projects. Along with seed collection and planting, bitterbrush greenhouse care and planting, constructing bird boxes, general cleanup, irrigation and farm work, fence work, camp hosting, aspen rejuvenation, small mammal surveys, peregrine falcon observations, elk and deer capture and many other projects that benefited the native wildlife of Idaho." When it comes to getting involved with anyone can take part. "We involve sportsmen groups, church groups, school groups, kids, college students, adults, retired individuals, hunters, anglers, wildlife watchers and anyone else from the community that would like to give their time to improving wildlife." said Cobb. While everything done by volunteers is of value, one particular volunteer was honored at the recent banquet. According to Cobb, "Randy Poole was awarded Volunteer of the Year 2006. Randy put in over 200 hours this year. Randy was given a GPS unit and a plaque." Also recognized were Kevin Buchholz, Jay Mincher, Randy Poole, Bobby Stevens, Art Svejda, Bob Woods, Bruno Jachman, John Maupin, Errol Mobley and Jim Greenhalgh as the top 10 volunteers, all were awarded an 8 piece outdoor cook set. The fisheries bureau chose to recognize Ron Hover, Duane O'Reilly, and Art Svejda as outstanding volunteers and presented them with a high quality cutthroat trout print. The wildlife bureau recognized Jim Porter for his tremendous amount of service dealing with injured birds. While people do not volunteer to help wildlife for monetary rewards, over 20 businesses donated items to be awarded as prizes at the banquet. "We wanted to thank everyone for helping out, so we made sure no one went home empty-handed," said Cobb. To learn more about becoming a volunteer for IDFG, call Jo Cobb at 525-7290 or E-mail her at jcobb@idfg.idaho.gov.