Fifth grade students from French Ford Middle School (FFMS) braved the gray skies and rain on March 12 to release the trout that they have watched grow in their classrooms in Water Canyon.
The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW), U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and Nevada Outdoor School teamed up to provide a day of further natural resource management and wildlife management education for students.
Fifth grade students were able to observe rainbow trout in multiple stages of life during their trout release field trip.
“[The program] just gives [kids] a better understanding of what wildlife and what their outdoor resources are. Typically, in the rural areas, most kids grow up outdoors. Nowadays a lot don't. They don't get to go out hunting or fishing or camping a lot. So, it exposes them to that. And I think in today's world of social media, and electronics and tablets, and all that, exposing younger generations to the outdoors, to get them off their phones and their tablets and get them engaged with the natural environment is really important,” explained NDOW Fisheries Specialist Brad Bauman.
The Trout in the Classroom program, which began in 2001, spreads statewide. It currently has around 250 classrooms raising trout for the program. The lessons meet the science standards for fourth and fifth graders in NV, but other grades, from third and up participate as well.
BLM biologists provided a lesson to students about Nevada’s birds and some residing in Water Canyon.
Humboldt County is unique because every fifth-grade classroom in Winnemucca participates in the program, according to Bauman.
The fifth graders were able to go through seven different stations including releasing the trout in the stream, fish anatomy and electrofishing—how fisheries and biologists collect fish and data in the stream, a big game station, a station about Nevada birds, a station about streams and riparian areas, a Leave No Trace camping site illustration, and a station about erosion.
“Imagine if you were a fifth grader and you got to go on this field trip—everybody remembers those days and how exciting that was,” said Bauman.
NDOW equips classrooms with a special incubator for their classroom tank and rainbow trout eggs entirely cost free. Students and teachers manage the tank with the eggs and watch them grow for around six weeks or 45 days, from alevin, to fry, to fingerlings, when they are ready to be released.
The rainbow trout eggs, grown in hatcheries then raised in the classrooms, are not native to Nevada and are sterile. The trout are mostly raised for sport, often becoming a nice meal to help support the Lahontan Cutthroat Trout population.
“Releasing rainbow trout into our lakes and streams that cannot reproduce helps to strengthen our sensitive population of Lahontan Cutthroat Trout by not hybridizing with the rainbows and still offering a desirable sport fish for anglers,” according to NDOW.
The day would not be possible without the help of several parent volunteers as well, helping to guide over 100 students that participate throughout the day.
“We need a lot of chaperones to make this day happen,” said Bauman, “The school district couldn’t do it without them.”