Stream Explorers available, including for free The national Trout Unlimited office staff periodically produce attractive, four-page, trout-themed digital magazines. Here's an example of the first and fourth pages of a recent one. The national Trout These can be purchased at a very reasonable price ($12.55 for 50 copies) at the link below. Fifteen editions of the magazine are also available for free in a folder contained in the VTTIC Google Docs collection. Here's a link to that folder. Phish photos Bob Wible recently sent me some photos that Sarah Stebbins, at Cold Hollow Career Center, sent him. Sarah thinks that her alevin are approaching swim-up. What do you think? Enjoy! My Healthy Stream While we're talking about curriculum resources--again!--let me point out the 48-page My Healthy Stream booklet that you can find in the Curriculum Resources folder of the Google Docs Collection. This beautiful document, jointly sponsored by Trout Unlimited and the Aldo Leopold Foundation, can be printed for free. (Look Aldo up if you don't already know about him.) You could also order hard copies of the booklet by contacting TU's Sabrina Beus at [email protected]. There is also a related PowerPoint presentation of the same name in that folder. Clicking on the image below will link you to the folder and give you access both to the booklet and to the PPT. While you're there, check out the other resources. Fish and Wildlife stream sampling Friday morning Tom Jones, fisheries biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Department, sent me a link to this wonderful video of an electrofishing survey that is typical of those he and his colleagues regularly conduct in Vermont streams. Update from Crossett Brook Middle School's students Meg Ritter sent us a video update of their alevin loose in the tank. Here it is. Meg also sent a good photo of their first dead fish.
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Jail break in Duxbury! As has happened at a few other schools, many of Crossett Brook Middle School's fry escaped from the breeder basket and are now loose in the tank, some of them snuggled down in the gravel. This is what happens in nature. Here's a video that Meg Ritter sent me. Her students are obviously very excited. While having your alevin down in the gravel is just what will happen in our local streams, it does cause worries when we reach the swim-up stage. In nature, food will constantly be swept to and by the fry, including when they're at the stage where they're ready to eat. In our tanks, however, the food normally floats on the top and that will be about 22" above our little trout. That's why you should consider the technique I described in the last blog (using your baster to squirt water-logged food towards the bottom). The first two videos on the Other Trout Videos page of this Web site will show your students what this all looks like in the wild. Beating hearts of young alevin In blog #14, I provided links to three videos taken by Matt Buck at Marion Cross School. I couldn't resist featuring one of those again. This one does such a good job of showing the beating hearts of the two little alevin, but it looks like their hearts are in their throats. Thanks, Matt! Beautiful eggs in Hartland Tiffany Tucker, at Hartland Cooperative Nursery School, sent this photo of some great looking eggs in her breeder basket. Tiffany pointed out that several of the eggs are at various stages of hatching. Great resources! A couple of days ago, I ran into a former Castleton University colleague, Karen Sanborn. Karen, who's been the head of the CSC/CU media department for decades, knew I was involved in the TIC program and wondered whether some of our TIC teachers might be interested in a collection of outdoor education materials that she had. I expressed interest, and she offered to bring them to the campus and let me review them. Indeed, I concluded that these materials would be of great interest to many of you. Let me tell you a little about them. They cover a range of topics but emphasize hands-on learning activities, especially for kids. The large, 45-pound box she ultimately gave me contains more than 40 books, pamphlets, reports, and posters on topics such as these:
So, I'm offering these to you! Please let me know which might be of interest. Since in my volunteer role, I have no budget for mailing books, much less, a 45-pound collection, we'll have to figure out how to get these to you, but I'm willing to try to work that out. Joe |
Joe Mark is Lead Facilitator of Vermont's Trout in the Classroom program.In June 2012, I retired after 40 years in higher education, having spent the last 32 years of my career as dean at Castleton. One of the first things I volunteered to do in retirement was to work with a parent-friend to help the Dorset School, where his kids and my Vermont grandkids attend, start a TIC program. Gradually that commitment grew into my current role, which is both demanding and highly rewarding. Archives
December 2019
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