After months of measuring water temperatures, twice-a-day feedings and the heartbreak of finding a few brook trout hatchlings belly-up, Weare Middle School students recently released around 60 juvenile fish into the Piscataquog River.
The release was the culmination of the school’s participation in the “Trout in the Classroom” program, which teaches students about environmental stewardship by having them raise the fish until they are big enough to be released. Henniker Community School and James Faulkner Elementary School, the other SAU 24 schools, also participated in the program.
Raising trout in a controlled environment is not as easy as it may sound. Weare Middle School enrichment coordinator Nicole Richardson said the program begins when the trout are still in their eggs, and students must make sure the water has the correct temperature and pH balance for the fish to survive.
Temperature is particularly important – if the water is too cold, the trout’s instinct to feed won’t kick in. If it’s too warm, the trout to die, Richardson said. And then there’s the day-to-day maintenance that comes with any classroom animal.
“They need to be fed twice a day, including on the weekends,” Richardson said.
Release came a little later this year than usual thanks to the heavy rains causing the river’s water levels to be too high to release safely, said parent volunteer Sandy Turcotte. But despite the up-stream struggle, the payoff at the end of the program was worth it, she said.
“These kids,” she said, gesturing to a group of students peering into the river at their newly-freed charges, “are the future of Fish and Game, and the environment in general.”
The students mimicked recent activity by New Hampshire Fish and Game, which finished its annual aerial trout stocking program earlier in June. The department uses a helicopter to deliver upward of 100,000 brook trout fingerlings from its hatcheries to nearly 50 remote ponds from the Sunapee Region north to Pittsburg.
Officials said the practice boosts the trout population in places where natural spawning can be difficult and attracts anglers seeking the solitude of remote waters.
(The Associated Press contributed to this story. Caitlin Andrews can be reached at 369-3309, candrews@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @ActualCAndrews.)