I've been bad! I don't think I've ever gone two and a half weeks without a VTTIC post. What came over me? Well, I'll tell you. Release Days, that's what! But now I'm back. I've got one last RD on Friday, and then it's all over but the shouting. Oh yeah, that and the clean up! But now I'm making up for lost time. Thanks to so many of you who sent pictures, this post includes three great videos and 109 photos! A record no doubt! Pownal fry--correct that--fingerlings. Monsters of the south! Mike Carrano sent me this video of the huge and beautiful brook trout that he and his students at Pownal Elementary School raised this year. Congratulations, Mike and students! Mike also sent this message: We had a very successful TIC program this year. We started with 204 eggs and we are releasing 172 very sizeable brook trout. The majority of our trout are between 6 and 8.5 cm. We have a unique trout with jet black eyes. We also had a Siamese trout that we were able to keep alive for quite some time. Mike reported that the biggest fish was too difficult to catch, so he captured one of its smaller siblings and measured it. Not only is it impressively long, but look at the girth of that one fish! Are you sure that's not a yellow perch, Mike? Kids-teach-kids at Lincoln Community School Devin Schrock sent me these photos of the occasions when his 5/6th graders taught K-4 students at their school about TIC. Here's the message Devin sent me in transmitting his pictures. Some pictures of my 5/6 students teaching on trout topics to K-4 groups. They chose a topic, designed a lesson plan with a hook, instruction, activity and closing, and taught four 20-minute lessons. Everyone loved it! The other pics [in separate slideshow below] are of our release into the New Haven. We released 27 fish. I'm working on the spreadsheet and will send it by the end of the school year. Thanks! P.S.: I love the embryo simulation! Here are the photos of Lincoln's Release Day. Looks like you had beautiful weather, Devin! Ludlow Elementary School released into the Black River TU Volunteer Kathy Ehlers helped Lisa Marks and her students release their fish at Hawk Mountain Resort, where Kathy works. Notice the FieldMaster AquaVue. I want one! Village School of North Bennington Release Day Trout Unlimited volunteer Barry Mayer used his waterproof camera to photograph VSNB fry underwater as they were released. Cool! Here are regular old photos of the VSNB RD. Barre City Elementary School Fish wind socks, casting, macroinvertebrates, and a trout release!! What a great day. Way to go Barre City! Fisher Elementary School RD Fisher's Charlie Cummings recruited a great crew of volunteers to help with their Release Day on the upper Roaring Branch in the Green Mountain National Forest. Fair Haven Grade School These photos were submitted by Amy Wright, who will be retiring this year and turns the FHGS TIC program over to Archie Clark, now doing TIC at Benson Village School. Best wishes for a happy retirement, Amy, and thanks! Proctor Elementary School On an altogether perfect day, Danielle Fagan and her students travelled to the Pittsford Recreation Center to sing, write, draw, collect macros, cast fishing rods, and release their trout into Sugar Hollow Brook. Wallingford release on Roaring Brook Pat Bowen had planned a great RD with lots of volunteers, including Shawn Good of Vermont F&W, who stole the show with his electrofishing demonstration. Pat honored the volunteers with a beautiful pewter trout pin. I quickly put mine on my sweat-stained TU hat. Mount Holly release Emma Vastola and her Mount Holly 3rd graders held their release on the Mill River tributary that flows along the edge of the school property. Currier Memorial School RD Michael Luzader's class released their fish into Lake Brook in the Green Mountain National Forest on a cold (43 degrees!) rainy day. We still had fun. Greater Upper Valley TU Chapter Rudi Ruddell, of the White River Partnership, sent me these photos of release days at four schools in his service area. The pictures from South Royalton School include photos from the two TIC tanks there, one at the elementary school, the other at the high school. Bethel Elementary School South Royalton School The Sharon School Whitcomb Junior/Senior High School Student writing reflection Most TIC programs and sometimes even Release Days include activities that span the curriculum. Such was the case for Pat Bowen's Wallingford Elementary TIC project this year and in the past. Occasionally teachers send me examples of student work. Here's a writing sample produced by one of Pat's 5th graders that she sent me. Pretty good, huh? Bennington Banner article on Pownal release Click on the image below to link to a nice article about the Pownal Elementary School TIC program and release day. Valley News cover The Sharon School release
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Some fry are getting pretty big! Every week brings several more Release Days. Need your data!!5/25/2018 West Rutland School monsters! Jenny Gammon at West Rutland School sent me this photo of some of her fish. This one isn't even their biggest, which measures 6 cm. Nice work West Rutland. It won't surprise you to learn that Jenny and her TIC colleagues Jenna Abatiell and Zach Eastman used the "warm and fast" approach to temperature management, that is, right after getting their eggs in January, they quickly eased the temperature up to 52 degrees and kept it there. That fish has nice colors too! We've had some beautiful weather for recent Release Days. Here are pictures from RDs across the state. Bridge School release photos Jen Grilly sent this regarding the Bridge School release. A couple photos from Bridge School's release day! Thank you so much Paul and Doug for your help! Poultney Elementary School As they have in previous years, Keith Harrington's PES students joined students from other regional schools at the Eco Festival held at Green Mountain College campus. After indoor Eco activities in the morning, Keith and his students walked to the banks of the Poultney River on the edge of the campus, where they released their fish. US Forest Service employee Chris Alexopoulos also showed the students the results of the electrofishing he had done earlier in the day. Keith was excited when it turned out that they had 63 fry because that was exactly the number of students in the three PES classes that participated in the TIC program this year. Having started with 100 eggs instead of the 200 they got last year, their survival rate was about double the rate of their previous two years. And the PES fish were significantly larger than the previous fish they raised. Keith thinks this may have been due to the fact they they kept the fry in the breeder baskets much longer this year, probably into the first week of April. What do you think? Crossett Brook Middle School Meg Ritter, at CBMS, said this about their Release Day. The release of our trout went very smoothly. The boys netted all 39 of our trout in less than 20 minutes. I've included some pictures. CVS- OVUHS collaboration Guy Merolle of Castleton Village School and Josh Hardt of Otter Valley Union High School got their students together for a wonderful collaboration this past Monday and Tuesday. Josh runs the Moosalamoo Center at OVUHS, which he founded 15 years ago. Click the link to check it out. Josh brought several of his students to Dewey Recreational Field in Castleton, close to the Castleton River, where they instructed CVS students on water quality issues and helped them collect and identify macroinvertebrates. The OVUHS students also added two cool enhancements to the normal TIC program. On Monday they taught CVS students fly casting and on Tuesday taught them fly tying. I'm a huge fan of "kids teach kids" approaches like this. I think they brings enormous benefits to both the older and the younger students. I was extremely impressed by the maturity, knowledge, and competence of Josh's students. It's apparent that he's doing a terrific job at the Moosalamoo Center program. I got to Dewey Field on Monday to take a few pictures but was at the Poultney RD Tuesday when the fly tying took place so didn't get any photos of that. Dorset School RD Parent volunteer Jim Mirenda sent these photos of the Dorset School's Release Day on the Mettawee River. Part of the program included a presentation by a game warden who had a prop that stole the show. He brought a dead doe! He also talked about how one becomes a game warden. I love those TIC tee-shirts! Middletown Springs Elementary School RD Jenn Tifft's 5th and 6th graders at Middletown Springs Elementary School had fabulous weather for their RD yesterday. Hilary Solomon, of the Poultney-Mettowee Natural Resources Conservation District, and her sidekick Sarah lead the students in water testing in the morning while I taught them about the physical characteristics of the stream environment (riparian zone, canopy coverage, substrate embeddedness, hydrodynamics, and the properties of ideal trout habitat). After lunch (Hawaiian wraps!), former VINS and 4Winds educator Elizabeth Cooper led macro collecting and identification activities. Then the students released their 36 fry. Here are just a few pictures of that gorgeous day. Data, data, data! We need it. Some of you have begun to send me your data but not enough. Here's a screen shot of the Crossett Brook Middle School data I got from Meg Ritter. Every year the TIC regional coordinators meet to discuss how the year went, what we learned from our experiences, and what we should do differently next year. In anticipation of that meeting, I compile and distribute the data I received from schools. This resource is invaluable in that it allows us to identify patterns and relationships. It can also help us answer thorny questions like these:
In order for us to be able to answer these and other important questions, we need as much data as we can get. So PLEASE send me your data, specifically the "Template for TIC data entry" and the "Temp and DI record and swim-up calculator." (I've linked those files to the file names.) In addition, if your spreadsheets don't include these details, we also need:
2018 release days begin I participated in my first Release Day of the season this past Tuesday, when Manchester Elementary-Middle School collected macroinvertebrates and released their 34 brook trout into Mill Brook in Danby on the grounds of Smokey House. But by then, at least three other Vermont schools, NewBrook, Sharon Elementary, and Stowe Elementary had already done their releases. Our senior TIC teacher, Mike Rapoport, and his Stowe students had another great year and released 140 fry into the West Branch of the Little River. Good work, Team Stowe! Here are photos from the Tuesday's MEMS release. How do you catch those critters? They're so fast. Experienced TIC teachers know how hard it can be to net your fry when it becomes time to gather them up, put them in a cooler, and take them to your release stream. Here are some suggestions.
Sharon Elementary School RD photos Here are three pictures Janis Boulbol sent me after their Release Day. Camels Hump macroinvertebrate collecting field trip Gerald Feenan, of CHMS, sent these nice photos of the day when their students visited their release site to collect macros. Those are some big bugs!! They'll be back to release their fish on June13. Crossett Brook Middle School release site photos Meg Ritter of CBMS sent these photos and this explanation: Here are the photos of the release site. The boys are clearing the remnants of a small dam/walkway that was put in so that the fish can easily go into Crossett Brook when ready. The last photo is of a macroinvertebrate that the boys saw in the water. We did not bring anything to scoop it up to identify, sadly. Cannibalism at East Montpelier Elementary School! Many TIC schools will experience cannibalism, especially as some of the dominant (and hungry) fish grow to be much larger than their punier peers, but few teachers will get to capture the incident in a photo or video. Robin Gannon did! Here's the shot she sent me. Look closely at the fish near the center of the frame. What's that sticking out of his/her mouth? Moretown Elementary School student scientists Duane Pierson, principal of Moretown Elementary School, sent me these images yesterday. Thanks, Duane! I like the way you're getting very young kids involved in your TIC program. Here are some photos of our TIC student-scientists providing lessons on their experience this year to younger kids, yesterday. It was an excellent day for both groups of students. Release Days are underway! As far as I'm aware, the first release of the year was this past Friday, when Jason Gragen and the students of NewBrook Elementary School released their fry into Grassy Brook in Brookline. Tomorrow Gary Saunders, another TIC volunteer, and I will be helping Seth Bonnett and Melissa Rice and the 6th graders of Manchester Elementary-Middle School release their fish into Mill Brook in Danby. One day every month (including in January!), Melissa and Seth's students have been visiting Smokey House in Danby to participate in a variety of environmental education activities. Mill brook, which the students studied earlier in the spring, runs through the Smokey House property. Here's a picture from last year's rainy MEMS release at Smokey House. Let me know when and where your Release Day will be! Macro ID charts There are a number of great resources in various folders on the TIC Google Drive. There's a folder, for example, called "Macro charts." (Click that name; it links directly to the folder.) This contains four JPEG files for identifying stream and pond macroinvertebrates. The first and fourth of these charts mostly feature macros found in ponds, lakes, or slow-moving rivers. The second and third (pictures below), however, have lots of the macros species we're likely to find in Vermont streams appropriate for brook trout. I recommend that you print charts #2 and #3 (ideally on card stock) and laminate them (or laminate them back-to-back). Another folder called "Insect identification, including charts" (also a link) includes a PowerPoint presentation on Macros and their identification. You'll also find a file called Biotic Index. This two-page document, like the colored macro charts, can be used to identify macro species (using black-and-white line drawings; the left image below) but it also permits you to calculate a stream's "biotic index," which is an important measure of its health. The biotic index methodology (explained in the right image below) assigns each macro species a number that reflects how pollution-tolerant or pollution-intolerant the species is. The fewer of the former and the more of the latter you find in a stream, the better the likely health of the stream. As with the colored macro charts, I recommend that you print these two pages on card stock and laminate them back-to-back. Then you can buy some Wet Erase felt-tip pens. This will allow your students to write on the laminated documents and, on the backside, do the calculations for determining your streams biotic index. How do you collect macros? So we're talking about identifying macros and using their presence in the stream to calculate "biotic index," a measure of the stream's health, but how do you collect them in the first place? First you need to either buy some "kick nets" (sometimes called "aquatic kick nets") or buy or build some "kick screens." Here's a professional grade kick net. They cost around $200 apiece. Here's a less expensive "student kick net." I found one on Amazon for about $80. Commercial kick nets cost about the same price. Having no budget for TIC, I elected to build half a dozen kick screens very inexpensively. I went to my local hardware store and bought:
INSTRUCTIONS
So for less than $5.00, you can make a perfectly useable kick net. Here's what the completed kick screen looks like. After your students have caught macros, what do they do with them? If you're planning a macro collecting/classifying activity, you'll want to assemble one or more collecting kits. If, like many teachers, you choose to break your students up into small groups of four or five kids, each under the supervision of an adult volunteer, you will need a kit for each group. So, you'll have to acquire inexpensive materials. Here's an example of a collecting kit. None of these items was expensive, and all, with the possible exception of the pipettes, should be available locally. I've laid out all but the "Dollar Store" wash basin on the foam board below. Contents of collecting kit
Macro Mayhem Depending on the age and energy level of your students, you may want to plan to have them play the Macro Mayhem game. This involves teaching students (a) how, by specific movements, the different species of macroinvertebrates take in oxygen and (b) how different species are sensitive to pollution and low levels of dissolved oxygen. Then you set up the game, assigning different species and roles to all the students. Here's a very brief video I shot of the Middletown Springs Elementary School students playing Macro Mayhem. Here's another video I found on YouTube. Minnesota's Natural Resources agency has put together a very comprehensive curriculum guide for this activity/lesson. Click on the image below to access the lesson plan. Data! Finally, and I'll probably say this again, we need your data! Every year the TIC coordinators study data of two sorts:
Regarding water chemistry, please send the spreadsheet titled "Template for TIC data entry 2018" (or your local equivalent). If we're to learn from your submission, you'll also need to tell us when and how many eggs/alevin/fry you lost on which dates and/or how your fish were behaving at various points. With your data and that from other teachers we will be able to learn more about TIC best practices with each successive year. Have fun in this beautiful spring weather! I know I speak for all our readers when I say, "Finally! Yay!!" It seems like we've been waiting for these warm sunny days for many weeks. Yesterday, when my wife Nancy and I were in Burlington, it was gorgeous if a bit breezy. Today, back in Castleton, it's an equally beautiful day and meant to hit 70 degrees. While some of our streams and rivers are high-to-very-high and Lake Champlain is at flood stage, in a couple of days water levels will drop, and the woods are bursting with life, including wonderful wildflowers. Get out there--if you can with your students--to enjoy this wonderful time of year! But now is also the time to plan or finish up planning your Release Day. As far as I'm aware, our first Release Day will be next Tuesday, May 15, when Seth Bonnett and Melissa Rice and their Manchester Elementary-Middle School students travel to Smokey House in Danby, Vermont, to spend several hours studying Mill Brook, their release stream, and saying goodbye to their diligently reared fish. Especially if this is your first Release Day, you might benefit from watching a few RD videos. Here's one of my favorites (except for the segment with the guy in the orange hat). You should know that this wasn't Steve Flint's first Release Day, and he chose to plan an ambitious three hours of activities, in part because he was able to recruit a large number of volunteers to help with the five stations he set up. Don't feel that your Release Day needs to be like Steve's. Each RD should match the culture of the school, the amount of time you want to devote to it, how comfortable you are getting students involved in fieldwork, the number of volunteers you can get to help, etc. The Release Day Videos page on the VTTIC Web site contains links to eight other RD videos. These will give you different ideas on how to approach your Release Day. Here's a link to that page. When and where will your RD take place? Publicity for TIC. When I can, I like to let both Trout Unlimited members and staff of Vermont's Fish and Wildlife Department know where and when our Release Days will be held. The more people we can get to observe and experience these wonderful educational experiences, the more individuals we'll be able to recruit for volunteer roles in the future. I will also relay details on RDs to members of the media in the hope that at least a few might choose to show up and document our activities. That kind of publicity is great for the program and could lead other schools to apply to participate next year. With regard to publicity, local TIC teachers and volunteers are undoubtedly in the best position to get press coverage. When I send a blind e-mail to a newspaper, especially a regional one, where I don't have personal contacts, that e-mail is likely to result in "Crickets!" When you contact that paper, however, you'll probably receive much better attention. And the smallest newspapers in Vermont, which often don't have paid reporters, much less full-time reporters, are typically very happy to print your press release, especially when it's accompanied by photos of kids having a great time in a stream. So let me know the where and when of your Release Day. Count those fry! In the past, some schools have neglected to count their fish before releasing them. If you don't count them, you will probably never know how many you released. Why is that? Some teachers use what I call the "subtraction method." They make an assumption about how many eggs they started with and then subtract the eggs and fish they know they lost. But this approach, for reasons identified below, is never accurate. Indeed, some teachers I've worked with have discovered that their actual total number of fish is two or more dozen more that they thought they had. Sometimes it's fewer. Here are some explanations.
So, what's the best way to count them? I know at least one teacher who builds counting the fry into the Release Day process. He sets up a recording station staffed by a couple of students. Then each team that has been given fry and released them goes to the recording station to report the number they released. Most teachers, however, count fry as they remove them from the tank and transfer them to whatever container (more on containers later) they are going to use to transport the fry to the stream. Here's what I recommend.
Tree planting! When, three years ago, Sebastian Saunders was a 5th grader at the Dorset School, TIC teacher Karli Love and her students participated in the TIC program.This past Saturday, Sebbie, now an 8th grader at Dorset, led an impressive project that resulted in 40 volunteers planting 280 trees along the banks of the Batten Kill in Manchester. Sebbie had proposed this to our local Trout Unlimited chapter as his Eagle Scout project. This tree planting became extremely desirable after the elimination of the dam that had created Dufresne Pond. The dam was removed to open up several miles of headwater spawning grounds, but the bottom of the pond, once it was again a stream, provided almost barren habitat for fish and other aquatic species. There was virtually no structure behind and beneath which fish could hide and no protective cover. Instead, the Batten Kill's water cooked in the sun. Here are some pictures from the wonderful tree planting effort. Congratulations, Sebastian, and thanks! Charlotte Central School 6th graders talk to astronauts! Imagine my surprise last Wednesday night when, while watching the WCAX late news, I saw Tasha Grey being interviewed! And it had nothing to do with TIC. It turns out that CCS 6th graders of Tasha's and Christa Duthie-Fox, got to converse with two astronauts aboard the International Space Station. I snapped this photo of our TV screen during that interview. Here's a quote on the project that appeared in the school newsletter:
Our CCS students were amazing - the quality of the questions that they asked was quite impressive and allowed for an excellent dialogue with the NASA astronauts. The work of the students leading up to Wednesday’s downlink included using Earthkam photos in their studies of geography, and have recently completed an ISS design challenge inspired by Apollo 13 which had them design an emergency insulation system to keep a battery warm in the extreme temperatures of space using only basic materials that can be found onboard the station. Students are currently working on research projects exploring some of the actual science experiments the astronauts are conducting and supporting on the ISS, looking at topics including material science, radiation impacts on DNA, experimental space habitats, and microgravity plant growth. Congratulations, Tasha and Christie. What a great learning opportunity for your students! Persistently high nitrite Every year, some schools experience extended periods of elevated ammonia or nitrite. Since these two toxic compounds can be very harmful to our fry, such stretches can be very worrisome, if not tragic. Recently, I've been in regular correspondence with Kathleen Backus and Brendan McKenna, of Village School of North Bennington. On April 10, Kathleen sent me this e-mail. I forwarded images Kathleen sent me to our TIC experts: Robb Cramer, Chuck Dinkel, and Tara Granke. Robb and Cramer though it looked like the fry had saprolegnia. On April 16, Kathleen wrote this: Today our healthy large fish are dying. I pulled out 7 large dead trout today and as I sat there more were dying. It is happening fast. Here are two weeks worth of VSNB data Kathleen sent me on April 16. As you can see, ammonia was slightly elevated on 4/2 and then declined, ultimately falling to zero, as nitrite began to rise. Unfortunately, nitrite stayed at 2 ppm or higher for at least the next eight days. I say "at least" because, when Kathleen rechecked the nitrite on 4/17, she found that it was still 2.0 ppm. (When I believed the 4/16 nitrite reading was 1.0, I assumed that the nitrogen cycle was finally coming to its conclusion--as Brendan McKenna put it: "The fever had broken.") Especially those 3.0 and 4.0 ppm nitrite readings were probably putting a lot of stress on the fish. Eventually (as of today), ten fish died. Here's what they looked like. Here's Robb Cramer's diagnosis: Those are high Nitrite numbers. My guess — the high Nitrite numbers led to increased susceptibility to infection and the fish acquired an infection during that time period. That is one of the consequences of poor water quality — immune suppression. So even if it is for a relatively short period of time, when the fish are stressed, they become more susceptible to disease. Chuck Dinkel, Maryland TIC coordinator, added this: A product such as Amquel Plus will detoxify ammonia and nitrites, but does not remove it. If a school is experiencing elevated nitrite readings this product will make it possible to employ larger and more frequent water changes to get the nitrites down; essentially buying time for action on the part of the students or the slow-growing bacteria. The conversion of ammonia to nitrites apparently takes place more quickly than conversion of nitrites to nitrates. You don't want to become overly dependent on a detoxifier, as something has to eventually remove the nitrites, either bacteria or water changes. But it does offer the possibility of saving some fish while either of these techniques or a combination of both are employed. So what are the take-aways from all of this?
Filter problems AquaClear filter output very low Melinda Carpenter, at Bellows Free Academy, sent this message to Bob Wible and Chuck Goller, two of her regional TIC support people. The water return seems to have slowed down to a dribble. Do either of you have any ideas about how to fix this? Thanks so much! Chuck responded with: Have you already checked to make sure the screen over the intake is clean and clear and the intake tube is intact and not clogged? (She had.) Bob sent this e-mail to Melinda and Chuck: I have seen a couple of instances where the water leaving the filter has greatly reduced. It was due to either: 1. What Chuck said: a clogged screen at the bottom of the intake tube. 2. An improperly positioned intake tube. Make sure the tube end that connects to the opening in the filter pump is aligned to the hole. Have the pump unplugged and also check that the impeller (which is on that hole) is rotating freely. It could be that something got in there and jammed it. After an intervention, Melinda reported this: I did end up taking apart some of the filter after school today and it is much better! I'm not really sure what I did as it didn't seem blocked, but a lot more water is running through, so that is a relief. Nice work everybody! That's a great example of collaborative problem solving. Fluval filter not working Two days ago Poultney Elementary School's Keith Harrington sent me the following e-mail. I came in today during vacation to check on our trout. The custodians have been feeding them and they look great, however our filter was not running. I took it out. Dumped out the water and started from scratch like it was the beginning of the year. When I put it back in the tank, the motor made a crackling noise for a few seconds and then quit. The good news is that everything else is running fine and the fish look great. I won't know until we come back on Monday after vacation whether we have funds to replace it. Any advice you have as to how to proceed will be appreciated. I have a beautiful batch and hope I can maintain them. Keith's school uses a Fluval 406 filter. Two problems that can occur with these are a dead motor or a broken impeller. Because of Keith's description of noise, I suspect the latter. My advice to Keith was to purchase an AquaClear 110 filter either locally or through the Internet. I found the filter available at Amazon for $76.99. (Since I was out of state for a few days, I wasn't able to help him.) Both the Fluval 406 and the AquaClear 110 filters seem equally effective in our TIC set-ups. The AquaClear has three advantages: It's considerably cheaper (the best price I could find on a Fluval this morning was $200); it's easier to set up; and there's almost no danger of a leak that could lead to water on the classroom floor. Once I'm back in Vermont, I'll pick up Keith's old filter and dive into the process of diagnosing and repairing it. It will either require a new impeller or that I send the motor unit back to the manufacturer. Either way, we'll eventually have a back-up filter available in this area for the next time we have one die mid-season. Adapted baster Last Saturday, Meg Ritter, of Crossett Brook Middle School, sent me this message and these photos. Since all of our alevin ended up in the gravel, I built an adaptation of the baster to shoot food to the smaller fry on the bottom. I glued (aquarium cement) a stiff tube to the end of a baster. It seems to have helped and is also helpful to check on those that are resting on the gravel. We squeeze some bubbles towards them--if they move away, they’re fine, if not, or move sluggishly, we pull them out. Great idea, Meg! I'm sure many teachers will copy you. The perfect release site Experienced TIC teachers probably know where they want to release their fish: the place where they released them last year. But new TIC teachers might still be looking for the right location, and even some experienced teachers may realize that there could be an even better site out there. For those still trying to decide where to release their fish, what should be considered? Where? Remember that Tom Jones of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department needs to approve your release site. Normally that is done in the fall as part of the process of requesting eggs. If for some reason you did not request his approval, you can contact him at [email protected]. Depending on where your school is located, you may have several fabulous release site options close by or you may have no good options without traveling a distance. What's the perfect release site? I often describe it as "skinny water," a small tributary brook that's just big enough to support trout and the bugs that will sustain them but small enough so that nobody, not even your most over-eager young student, can get into trouble. Here is my wish list of the ideal characteristics of a great release stream:
What you don't want is a broad, deep stream or river, where kids could get into trouble.
Have a back-up plan too Another thought: you can't count on the weather, and sometimes on your scheduled Release Day, your first-choice release site is in flood stage. If that's the case, you'll either need to reschedule or go to an alternate site. It's best to start with two dates, your primary date and a back-up "rain date." If that's what you choose to do, make sure that all your helpers have both dates on their schedules. The other approach is to move up into the watershed of your approved stream. Since water flows downhill--a water table is a great way to demonstrate this to your students--small, high-gradient streams (that means ones that drop steeply and lose altitude quickly) lose the extra water dumped by a heavy rain long before lowland streams do. Streams and rivers in the valleys might still be muddy and dangerously high for days after their tributaries have cleared up and gone back to their banks. Getting help for your Release Day Unless you intend a super "short and sweet" release day--and some teachers who engage their kids in fieldwork all year long do--you'll probably want to plan a number of fun and interesting activities on Release Day. I mentioned some of the options for RD activities in my April 2, 2018, blog and will be offering further options below. But the question of how ambitious your RD can be hinges on the number of people you can you get to help. Who might some of those potential helpers be? Many teachers recruit Release Day helpers both from within and without the school community. Here are some possibilities:
Regional Trout Unlimited chapter TIC liaisons If you don't know where to find the volunteers you need, contact your local TU TIC liaison. They might be able to help. Here they are:
Natural Resources Conservation Districts I mentioned above that potential volunteers/partners might be found at one of the "natural resources conservation districts" that are spread across the state. Here's a map of their distribution. These groups typically have staff with considerable expertise in environmental science, especially related to rivers and streams. The NRCDs also often own equipment that can be used at Release Days. Click the button below to get more information on each of the state's NRCDs. Watershed groups All across the state of Vermont you will find a variety of watershed groups. Here's a map of their distribution. I bet there's one near your school. (Click on the map to access the interactive watershed group Web page.) Many of those red dots represent groups that have a special interest in a local river. Some focus not so much on a specific river but rather on a watershed. Here are some of the rivers covered by these organizations:
Below I've provided a link to a Web page listing all these organizations as well as others. Here's an example of the Web site of just one of these groups. Audubon Society Members of the various Audubon Society chapters around the state have also in the past assisted schools with their Release Days. Here is some contact information on each of Vermont's seven Audubon Society chapters. I'll bet there's one in your neighborhood!
Release Day videos You can find numerous Release Day videos on YouTube, but I've also assembled a few on this Web page. If you don't know what a RD looks like, watch a few of these fairly short films. More about the WHAT of Release Day Tara Granke's reminder Tara Granke, national TIC coordinator for Trout Unlimited, (pictured right) recently reminded our state coordinators about the fieldwork and RD ideas available on the TU/TIC Web site. Click on the image below to go to that page on the national TIC Web site. RD ideas from teachers across the country Teacher Luke Rabideau asked this question of the participants on the TIC/SIC national network: Any other ideas, beside a general stream study, temps, flows, seine for bugs, and mapping. Of course releasing the trout! Any other ideas for a day at the stream? S. Hood sent this in: Our city, Tulsa, OK has a "streams" division that keeps tabs on the health of the streams that drain our city into the Arkansas River... that have "shocking" equipment and are delighted to be invited to our releases where they "shock-up" all types of aquatics... they even let the older students man the nets. It's always quite exciting to see what pops up. We also offer fly tying demos and casting lessons. JJ Prior, Grade 5, Keene, NH, submitted these ideas: Similar to the post from Tulsa, our municipal water department monitors healthy streams and watersheds and helps provide our equipment. On release day our coordinator meets us at the stream and puts on waders, catching macroinvertebrates for students to pass around in observation jars: dragonfly nymphs and caddis fly larvae, and occasionally we see other trout fry already in the stream. The kids looking into the jars at the little critters makes for great photos! Chuck Dinkel, MD TIC coordinator added: Geo-caching is becoming popular. Invite a state or federal park ranger to talk to students about protecting and preserving the environment. Fly tying demonstration by TU volunteers. Visit a local hatchery if it is within driving distance. Dave Andrews of Butler, PA, contributed this: We do a fly casting station, litter cleanup, riparian buffer planting, and electroshocking fish survey with our local biologists. Lillit Genovesi, TIC coordinator for NYC, suggested: Stewardship projects, such as invasive plant removal or native tree/shrub planting, are always great. We have also done hike, water quality and soil testing, nature journaling, and my personal favorite: Postcards from the Watershed - where students write a postcard to friends or family describing the day and mail it from local PO. Schedule your Release Day! Over the next few weeks, many schools will be scheduling their Release Days AND booking volunteers to help with those days. If you wait too long, you may find it difficult to recruit the folks you need to help with some of the more interesting field-based activities. What's with this weather? Yuck! When will this weather become more seasonally appropriate? Here's what the Castleton River looked like this afternoon when I drove back from a visit to West Rutland School. And what did I see in West Rutland? Some very big and beefy young brook trout. WRS science teacher Jennifer Jackson greeted me at the end of her school day to show off the very healthy fish she and English teacher Zach Eastman have been raising. Their bigger fry were more than two inches long! Pretty impressive for early April! (BTW, they chose the "hot and fast" temperature approach.) School reports In response to Blog #21, I heard from quite a few teachers, several of whom sent photos of their fish or students. Janis Boubol, Sharon Elementary School, wrote: At Sharon we have had several fish languishing at the bottom and looking listless. We have been losing 1-2 fish per day for the last 2 weeks. We have checked the numbers, done water changes and have been watching the strong fry feed well. We did not have this experience last year so I am wondering what else we can do. I said that I suspected those small, weak fish were pinheads that never learned to eat and would almost certainly die. As long as the healthy-appearing fish don't start looking weak too, I though the survivors would be fine. Keith Harrington, Poultney Elementary School, sent this report: Our trout have been released from the breeder basket and into the tank and seem to be doing well. We had a run where we were losing one or so a day right before we let them into the tank. It seems to be that these fish were just not eating enough and were either not learning how to eat or being outworked to get to the food by the others that were more developed. As far as fish being trapped against the filter, or going through the filter is concerned, that has not been a problem at all. One thing I did differently this year is to leave them in the breeder basket longer. They were bigger when I let them into the tank, and I think that is paying off. For release day in the past I have done several things. One year we had students write poems about their experience with TIC to read before the release. Last year each student or group of students did a Powerpoint presentation that we shared on the stage at Green Mountain College on the big screen. We also have worked with GMC professors and Poultney/ Mettowee Watershed Conservation District staff to put together a series of hands-on station activities at the Poultney River during the day. Water table work Danielle Levine, at Schoolhouse Learning Center, borrowed a "water table" from the Resource Room at the ECHO Science Museum in Burlington. This allowed her to demonstrate to her young students how precipitation moves through a watershed and its streams and rivers. Pretty cool, huh! More school reports Dan Ruddell, of White River Partnership, provided this update on a couple of schools in the eastern part of the state: There seemed to be some possible discoloration (darkened) around the gills on one that I looked at [at Sharon Elementary], but not dramatically so. As Janis mentioned they looked listless and the gills appeared to be fluttering; nothing else obvious, but the body was also not as large as many of the others. Last week the filter had stopped functioning for a bit (less than a day) due to a fine mesh over the filter intake becoming clogged. I removed and rinsed it with tap water, then rinsed well with tank water before replacing; filter worked fine at that point. The ammonia had risen temporarily to 1.0, nitrite to 3, nitrates to 80. Ammonia came back down to 0.25, but nitrite has stayed up around 3; nitrate had dropped back to 40. They had lost around 20 fish. We did a partial water change yesterday and drew another bucket. Their water is relatively hard. Braintree has also lost 20 or so in the last week or two, some similar issues with listless fish and fluttering gills on ones I saw but no signs of discoloration. They said a number of the mortalities seemed smaller/weaker; they had lowered the basket but have been placing weak ones back into it again. Filter is functioning fine, ammonia mostly 0 with one or two 0.25 readings; nitrite all less than 0.5 and nitrates mostly 20 or less. I was thinking we may be seeing some mortality of pinheads as the yolk sac reserves are now pretty depleted and some of these fish are still not really responding to feeding, but there may be more going on; not clear about what that is though. Cannibalism documented! Charlotte Central School's Tasha Grey sent this report, question, and photo: I came in this morning to discover a head hanging out of our largest fry's mouth! We popped him in the breeder basket until we can figure out what to do- another teacher dubbed it a "time out." Should we try to remove the dead fish from his mouth? Or simply let him deal (or not) with his own problem? I said don't try to remove the dead fry. Bob Wible added this: I would leave the aggressive fry in the basket for a week. Also feed him just once a day so the others can grow a little more than he does. Then a day before you before you release him back to the tank feed him as you do the others. Jen Grilly, at th Bridge School proudly sent me this video of her fish eating breakfast. Jen also pointed of the "little guy on the bottom with a crooked tail." The TIC team at Dorset School, Holly Hjelt, Brenda LoPresti, and Karli Love, had their students write trout haikus. Here's a sampling of what the students produced that I found posted on the bulletin board outside their classroom. Great job kids! Because three teachers with three different classrooms are working together on TIC at Dorset, Karli, Brenda, and Holly have had to define which students will focus on what aspects of TIC when. Some of this is laid out on a bulletin board outside Karli's classroom. Here are some pictures I took of the BB. (I also couldn't resist snapping a few photos of the tank in Karli's room.) I love this photo that Meg Ritter, Crossett Brook Middle School, sent me today. It shows the concentration her 7th graders invest in water testing. Salisbury Community School's Amy Clapp sent this report and the following photos. We did the slow and cold method, and the fish seem so little. We had about 6-7 die in the swim up phase. I think they were pinheads, but once we released into the big tank, die-off seemed to stop. Students have been comparing and contrasting life cycles of fish compared to other animals and plants....they make lots of connections. I love it when the pre-schoolers come to look at the tank.....working on release day...think we are going to tour the Salisbury Hatchery and release on the same day with Paul Urband. We also have been doing "Fish Friday" where each Friday I do a lesson for 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th graders about some aspect of fish and/or tank. Here are some photos. What species? As soon as Charlie Cummings, 3rd grade teacher at Fisher Elementary School, got his eggs, he thought one group of them looked very different from all the others. As those eggs hatched and grew, they continued to look unlike the rest of the fish. Over the months, we've begun to wonder whether they might be landlocked Atlantic salmon. Here are three photos of those mystery fish. What do you think? Emma Vastola sent this great information and related images on an activity she's got her 1st graders doing: The first graders are making Trout Journals this year. They are learning how to make scientific observations and exploring the Performance Standard: I can tell how parents and their children are alike and different. Attached are a few photos of the students doing their Brook Trout Observations. My next blog will return to the topic of Release Day planning.
What do our trout look like these days? On Saturday I visited Currier Memorial School in Danby and met with teacher Michael Luzader. We had scheduled a couple of hours to inspect several possible release sites near his school. That gave me the chance to see his fish. Here's what his are looking like. I love the way that fry all want to face into whatever current they detect. In this case, the current was created by a combination of the filter out-flow and the two aerators that Michael had installed. Send me photos and videos of your fry. Release Day planning Now that we've gotten past April Fool's Day--I hope someone in your life tricked you good!--it's time to get serious about planning Release Day. In this and future blogs, I'll address the four questions that have to be considered when thinking about Release Day:
Let us know what you've done in past Release Days that's worked for you and your students. We'll share those ideas with new TIC teachers or those eager to augment what they've done on Release Day in past years. For new TIC teachers and those wanting to expand or spice up their Release Days Now that we got that appeal for ideas out of the way, let's start with the question of what to do on Release Day. In Vermont, we generally conduct Release Days between the middle of May and the middle of June. (That's part of the when. More to come.) Release Days can range from simple, 20-minute long events to four-hour long ( or more) programs that include several different fieldwork activities. Schools that take the former, brief approach to Release Day are typically those that have engaged their students in fieldwork all year long. For example, Guy Merolle, science teacher at my local school, Castleton Village School, enjoys the luxury (because of the proximity of a nearby trout stream) of having his kids doing work in the Castleton River, just north of CVS, from August to June. When the end of the TIC program approaches, he doesn't need to provide additional fieldwork opportunities for his students, so he embeds the release of their fish into an annual service project that the whole school performs at Lake Bomoseen State Park. All the kids are transported to their release site. Guy and some students say a few words; they put their fry into a tributary of the Castleton River; everybody cheers; and then they get back on the buses and go on to Lake Bomoseen, where they pull water chestnuts or some other invasive species. A great Release Day for CVS! But most schools don't have the option of year-round fieldwork, so they choose to augment the release of their fish with fieldwork activities. Here's a list of activities that some Vermont schools have included in past Release Days.
You can find details on how to conduct these various activities (a) in our VTTIC Google Docs folder, (b) at the national TIC Web site, or (c) on the Internet. If I've listed above an activity you'd like to use on your Release Day and you can't find details on how to conduct it, let me know and I'll provide instructions or a description of the activity. In my next blog, I'll start to tackle the questions of WHO you can get to help you on Release Day, WHEN to schedule it, and WHERE to hold it. Crossett Brook Middle School Here's what Crossett Brook Middle School's Meg Ritter’s fish are looking like: Here are two pictures Meg's students took of their fish. Castleton Village School Here are a few photos I took while visiting Guy Merolle at Castleton Village School on March 29. By the way, Guy doesn't have plants in his tank. Those are images on a background photograph behind the tank.
As some of you have reported, while many of Guy's fish look big and healthy, some are languishing on the bottom and not eating. This is probably due to the fact that, while Guy was on paternity leave spending time with his wife and their second baby, a substitute teacher lowered the basket--probably too early. These scrawny fish will almost certainly not make it. Be sure to remove them before they decompose and contribute to water chemistry problems. Netting failures, worries about water chemistry, great video from Milton Middle School, and more!3/21/2018 Netting problems In my last post, I wrote about the tragedies that can result when you fail to put netting over the filter intake soon enough. Unfortunately, that's not the only problem you can encounter with netting. On Monday, Emily Burlett, at Rutland Intermediate School, submitted this report: I'm having some difficulty with my fish getting stuck in the filter. At the beginning of last week I found almost 25 in the bottom of the filter (alive & dead). Since then I have been losing them quickly ( I'm thinking getting stuck in the filter may have stressed them out). I changed the screen on the filter intake but still have several getting stuck to it. Later in the day, Emily responded to one of my questions with this: I used the mesh that you gave out at the training to cover the intake but they got through it. I have attached a picture of the filter intake with a piece of screen I used for modifying the breeder baskets( I changed from the mesh to the screen after I had to fish all the fish out of the filter). Oh, no! It was my fault! Emily was using the netting I passed out at the TIC workshop! Then yesterday I got this e-mail from Colby Hescock at Rutland Town School: Everything has been running smoothly here at RTS! Unfortunately we discovered that we lost 6 fish because they got sucked up against the filter. We have netting around it to prevent them from being sucked into the filter, but they still manage to get stuck to the outside and aren’t strong enough to swim away. Here’s a picture of our current set up, I was wondering if you had any suggestions? Let me know, thanks! Here's what Colby's filter intake looks like. Later in the day, Colby added this: The trout are getting sucked against [my emphasis] the netting not all the way into the filter, I think our netting is working fine to keep them out. The problem is the sucking power of the filter is too strong when they get in close enough. These problems are due to one or both of these two possibilities:
When I shared this problem with Maryland TIC coordinator Chuck Dinkel, he mentioned that most filters in use have a flow adjustment setting that would allow a teacher to reduce the flow, thereby making it less likely that a weak swimmer would get sucked up against the netting. You have to be somewhat careful in reducing filter flow because it could compound any water chemistry problems you might be having; but if your water chemistry is okay and your fish are losing the battle with the filter suction, try reducing the flow for a while. If you don't know how to change the flow setting, check your filter manual. If you no longer have a manual, you can probably find one on the Internet. If you use either the AquaClear 110 or the Fluval 406 filters, I have put copies of those manuals into this folder on the VTTIC Google Docs site. So what's the take-away?
Because netting should be neither too coarse nor too fine, it's been hard to describe the netting you should install over the filter intake, so I've worked on that. This afternoon I measured and photographed netting that I think should work just fine. What you'll see below is nylon screening (made for screen windows and door) that has 18 squares per inch. I think that should work very well. I bought this at my local hardware store. Great video from MMS Meaghan Beley-Finnemore, of Milton Middle School, sent me this nice video. Her fish look great! Healthy, active, and fat. I also like the artistic tank background. Is that a baby otter I see there? Cloudy water? Meaghan also had a concern about cloudy water. I responded to Meaghan with the following: Here’s what the national TIC site says about cloudy water: “The water in my tank is cloudy. What should I do? Cloudy water probably indicates an excess in decaying matter. This may be from dead fish, leftover food, or a problem with the filtration. Carefully conducting regular water changes, as well as cleaning the tank of all solid material, is the best way to fight this. Make sure the filter is functioning properly, and that water is flowing out of it. Clean filter components if needed, but do not use soap or any chemical cleaners. Carbon filter packs should be replaced every year. If fish are not eating all provided food, you may reduce the amount given until they are able to eat it all. Excess food after 10 minutes should be removed and discarded.” This is a good opportunity to remind or tell you about the Troubleshooting folder on the national TIC Web site. You can often find answers to your technical concerns there. Below is a screenshot of the Troubleshooting page. The image is also a link to the folder. (While you're at the national TIC site, check out the other great resources there, including curriculum ideas.) Water chemistry worries Several teachers wrote with concerns about elevated ammonia, nitrite, and/or nitrate levels. I'll try to provide an overview of what to accept. Overview. It's normal to see all these three chemicals increase as part of the "nitrogen cycle." The first two are the most potentially toxic for brook trout. Nitrate, even at fairly high levels, causes little harm. Fry urine and decomposing feces and excess food contribute to ammonia levels rising. Nitrifying bacteria in your filter and elsewhere convert ammonia to nitrite. Denitrifying bacteria, also in your filter, convert nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate levels are managed by water changes. When the nitrogen cycle proceeds "according to plan," this is what you can expect:
Unfortunately, many schools experience deviations from this classic sequence of processes; and, thanks to Robb Cramer, one of our eastern schools engaged in a "pre-cycling" process so presumably saw had all of this happen before their eggs arrived. So how do you manage water chemistry?
Finally, it's also important to observe your fish closely. Are they active and feeding enthusiastically, or are they listless and languishing on the bottom? Do they look "normal," or have you observed a change in their appearance (a change in coloration or perhaps reddened gills)? Sometimes water chemistry reading seem to be a concern yet your fish look great. In general, if your fish look great, you don't need to panic. Recent photos Thanks to Amy Wright (Fair Haven Grade School) and Meg Ritter (Crossett Brook Middle School) for sending pictures in the last few days. |
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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