CONSERVATION -- Here's a tip o' the hat to a volunteer crew of 14 members of the Spokane Fly Fishers who idled their fishing rods Saturday.

Instead, they took up shovels to boost the future of fish in a northeastern Washington trout stream.

The club's conservation committee, headed by Mike Keegan, worked with Colville National Forest fisheries biologist Karen Honeycutt in an ongoing restoration project on Sherman Creek, about 14 miles west of Kettle Falls.

The group reports planting more than 1,000 trees and shrubs that eventually will curb erosion and provide streamside fish habitat.

Honeycutt said that forest crews and volunteers that also include the Colville Tribe and Kettle Falls third graders will plant a total of 7,800 trees and cuttings along the stream this year.