It’s fairly certain that many of the students at White Mountain Elementary School in Ruidoso lost their homes in the devastating fire and flooding early last summer in the mountain resort community where I grew up.
When I learned about how widespread the damage was, my thoughts first turned to the third graders at that school — many of whom I had met during the spring semester Trout in the Classroom (TIC) project. I feared that some of them, as well as some of the inspiring teachers who coordinated the program, had lost homes in the fire and/or flooding.
As a quick refresh, Trout in the Classroom is a program sponsored by Trout Unlimited, a national organization dedicated to protecting and restoring cold water fisheries in the United States and encouraging fishing in those waters. The program involves having students participate in the raising of trout from eggs to adults in classrooms (preferably elementary) and then releasing the adults in nearby approved lakes and streams. Its intention is to give young students hands-on learning about the life cycle of trout and instill the importance of preserving and protecting fish habitat.
I had assumed that because of the chaos created by the Ruidoso disaster and the uncertainty of the future for the school and the community, the Trout in the Classroom program would likely be put on hold for a year or two.
But to my surprise, I got an e-mail mid-summer from one of the two teachers who coordinated the TIC program last year saying they were ready to do it again. I was thrilled and excited.
The teachers also said they wanted to start the program this fall so the fish would be much larger when they will be released next spring. We quickly determined that the new release site would be Grindstone Reservoir instead of the Rio Ruidoso ,where we released the fish last spring. I’m fairly certain none of the fish we released in the river survived the terrible flooding. The river is still recovering so the reservoir is a great alternative.
The rainbow trout eggs were delivered to the school mid-October and when I drove to Ruidoso about two weeks later, some of the eggs had already hatched and the fish were in the alevin stage. (Alevin are trout or salmon that have hatched from their egg but still carry a yolk.)
The students in the five classes participating in the program are already excited about this year’s fish experiment. They have drawn posters showing the life cycle of trout that have been placed in the school hallways. A picture is below.
I spoke briefly with students in the classroom last week and answered some of their questions about trout. Then I asked them a question I’d been wondering about.
“How many of you lost your home in the fire or the flood?”
About three or four hands went up in each classroom.
“How many of you know someone who lost a home in the fire or the flood?”
Virtually every one of the students raised their hand.
I think the impact of the fire and flood was a lot for the third graders to process. I’m hoping that the fish project will be a metaphor for new growth and optimism about the future and can help them move forward.
I’ll keep you posted about this year’s project.
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