History of Fish and Wildlife (also "fish and wildlife") in Vermont After our brief but interesting discussion about "ethical issues" associated with the TIC program, I decided to look for documents and reports that could inform us about the dramatic changes that humans made to the Vermont landscape and to the rivers and watersheds that our trout need for their existence. One helpful document was a "timeline" I found on the Vermont Department of Fish and Wildlife's Web site (image of first page below is a link to the full PDF). In this document, you'll learn such interesting tidbits as:
But looking at these details regarding the natural history of Vermont and the evolution of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department raises some questions:
I think most would agree that the creation of Vermont's and other state's "fish and wildlife" department was a response to the dramatic decline of fish and wildlife populations across the country. What caused that? How did we devastate Vermont's land, especially during the 19th Century?
What led people to do this damage?
Manifest Destiny was an ideology and political point of view that emerged in the United States in the first half of the 19th Century. It had a great influence on how the nation saw itself; how it expanded, both in North America and elsewhere; and--for the purpose of this narrative--how it treated the land and the living things that occupied it. According to historian William Weeks, those who advocated Manifest Destiny usually drew on three main themes:
It was also that sense of superiority, including over "nature," and that it's all "ours for the taking" that led to wiping the passenger pigeon from the skies and driving the American bison into near-extinction. Alternatively: the Native American view But consider Native American cultures. The whole Manifest Destiny approach that the European-Americans used to justify "owning," "controlling," and destroying the land and its species stands in stark contrast to the way Native Americans viewed and treated the natural world. One of the most popular expressions of the Native American's views of nature can be found in the 1854 speech of Chief Seattle. Here's an excerpt from it: (I should add that whether Seattle's words, spoken in his native tongue Lushootseed, were interpreted accurately is oft disputed.) Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove, has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. Even the rocks, which seem to be dumb and dead as the swelter in the sun along the silent shore, thrill with memories of stirring events connected with the lives of my people, and the very dust upon which you now stand responds more lovingly to their footsteps than yours, because it is rich with the blood of our ancestors, and our bare feet are conscious of the sympathetic touch. Triploids As I think everyone involved in this program knows, all of the brook trout eggs we get these days are "triploids," that is sterile fish. The reason behind the state's shift to triploids two years ago was to prevent the fry we release in Vermont's waters from inter-breading with native fish that might be living in those streams. That way we can preserve whatever "heritage strains" might exist. And even if no heritage strains exist in the streams where we release our TIC fish, at least our trout aren't modifying the genetics of fish that are successfully reproducing and "making it" on their own. When you see the process that Jeremy Whalen, supervisor of the Roxbury Fish Culture Station, describes as the way triploids are created (photo below), it may make you think about Dr. Victor Frankenstein. But humans have been "messing with nature" for a long time. At our TIC workshop, Robb Cramer pointed out that bananas and seedless watermelons are triploids. So are some awfully good apples: Jonagold, Mutsus, and Winesaps, among many others. But the "messing with nature" tradition goes much deeper than Luther Burbank or even Gregor Mendel. For millennia, humans have been modifying species for agriculture and herding. Most believe that agriculture began in the Fertile Crescent around 10,000 to 12,000 BC. That involved selectively harvesting seeds from specimens that had desirable traits--bigger wheat grains, for example--and doing that again and again and again over centuries. Wheat, rice, corn, potatoes, quinoa, lettuce, peas, broccoli, every fruit, almost all nuts and seeds--it's pretty much all the result of selective breeding if not even more invasive procedures. About 2,000 years later, humans started to do the same thing to animal species, beginning with goats and chickens. Over time, through this process of "selective breeding," species changed. Chickens that used to weigh two pounds now can weigh as much as 17 pounds. Birds that laid a small number of eggs once a year now can produce 200 or more. And wolves became house pets, that is to say, dogs. (And the dogs keep changing! Who invented that cute Labradoodle?) As we approach Thanksgiving time, think about what's happened to the bird at the center of the typical American holiday table. I'm pretty sure you and your family have eaten a domestic turkey. Have you ever had a wild turkey? They're pretty different, aren't they. That's the result of selective breeding--and lots of other human interventions. And many say that, if it hadn't been for the development of agriculture, we wouldn't have anything like the "civilization" we see around the World today. Over time, our ancestors became increasingly more efficient in growing food; and that allowed some members of the community to move into specialized roles, including shamans, warriors, scribes, artists, poets, and philosophers. But selective breeding is just the beginning. As our understanding of plants and animals grew, we found new ways to "mess with Mother Nature." Ask your local dairy farmer how important artificial insemination is. And what about genetic engineering? I'm told that it's hard to shop at the typical grocery store without encountering GMOs at every turn. (Not so in Europe, apparently.) Hatcheries and aquaculture Which brings us back to Trout in the Classroom, a program based on harvesting eggs from hatchery-raised female trout, fertilizing those eggs with milt collected from hatchery-resident male trout, and then in less than two months, delivering those "eyed" eggs to your TIC schools. While many fisher-people applaud the hatchery trucks that arrive to stock their home waters, not everyone feels the same. Here's an alternative view. The Patagonia company has produced and made available for free a full-length documentary on the issues associated with fish farming--in this case for the purpose of raising salmon--as well as our over-dependence on hatcheries. It's a well produced and informative film that might change the way you regard hatcheries and fish stocking. It could also influence the way you shop for fish! Let me know what you think of Artifishal. I'd be interested, too. in hearing what grade levels you think are ready for this complex and controversial content. Here's the full-length (1' 15") film.
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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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