Students get hands-on lesson

by Serena Overbeck,

Trout Creek Adventist School

On Tuesday, November 28, my class from Trout Creek Adventist School went to the Cabinet Gorge Kokanee Hatchery. Some students in my class had read a book called "Come Back Salmon" by Molly Cone. The field trip was a way for our class to learn about our local fish and what we can do to keep the fish in our rivers and lakes.

Dan Dillon, the hatchery manager, taught us many things about the life cycle of the fish and anatomy. My whole class really enjoyed watching the fish leap and flop for the food. There are 6.1 million eggs at the hatchery plus all the fish in different stages. In order to keep the fish population healthy, it's important to keep garbage, chemicals and invasive species out of our water. Mr. Dillon emphasized that fertilizers that are used for lawns, especially those next to the rivers, can be very harmful for the fish population. Fertilizer puts out way too much nitrogen in the river and causes dangerous algae blooms. Everyone learned so many things and we will pay more attention now to keeping the waters clean.