Trout In The Classroom

Trout in the classroom (TIC) provides an exciting and creative way for young people to become stewards of the environment through a meaningful and enjoyable combination of hands-on and classroom experience. Its main purpose is to create in youngsters a durable understanding and appreciation of the importance of clean water, the preservation and enhancement of natural resources, protection of the environment and the value of maintaining healthy populations of sport fisheries as an indicator of environmental quality. A further objective is to encourage young people to enjoy sport fishing as part of a healthy life-style and a way to connect with nature.

Through TIC, schools receive fertilized Kamloops rainbow trout eggs, hatch them, raise the fingerlings and monitor their growth during the school year and then release them into local streams in late spring.

From its beginnings in three Montgomery County schools six years ago, TIC now has expanded to 21 schools: seven in Montgomery County, four in Howard County, five in Frederick County, two in Baltimore County and one each in Carroll, Garrett, and Harford counties. It reflects a productive partnership among PPTU, the Maryland public school system, the state Department of Natural Resources, and other TU chapters and environmental groups like the Potomac Valley Fly Fishers (PVFF).

Volunteer and school resources combine to fund and support the program. Each school obtains and sets up a 55 gallon aquarium, with a chiller, circulating air pump and other equipment and materials to test and maintain the tank's water quality. PPTU supplies the eggs and trout food to all schools. It also offers technical support to schools in Montgomery, Howard, Carroll and Baltimore counties. PVFF supports Frederick County TIC activities and a local TU chapter does the same in Garrett County.The state Department of Natural Resources provides permits for trout rearing and stocking as well as technical support for the release of the trout. The 2009-10 schools are:

Montgomery County – John Poole, Robert Frost, Rocky Hill, and Takoma Park middle schools; Forest Knolls, Ritchie Park, and Westbrook elementary schools

Howard County – Hammond and Swansfield elementary schools, and Burleigh Manor and Oakland Mills middle schools

Carroll County – Gerstell Academy

Baltimore County – Lutherville Laboratory and McDonogh schools

Harford County – Bel Air High School

Frederick County – Lewistown Elementary and Monocacy, New Market, Urbana and Windsor Knolls middle schools

Garrrett County – Crellin elementary School

Schools prepare their aquariums in November for arrival of the eggs in early January. Shipped overnight on ice, the eggs are donated to PPTU by the Washington state hatchery which DNR uses for its own trout stocking program, thereby guaranteeing disease-free eggs. Within a few hours of their arrival, PPTU volunteers divide the eggs into shares for each school and deliver them.

The program is so popular at some schools like Westbrook that the students have set up a TIC website. Moreover, weekly updates on the progress of the hatchlings are broadcast on the school's radio and TV programs and appear on signage throughout the school. Many children at all the schools also bring their parents to observe the trout and children crowd around the tanks daily to see how the fish are doing.

PPTU members are now in the process of becoming foster aunts and uncles to over 2000 baby Kamloops rainbow trout through schools in the the 2009-10 TIC program!

Trout in the Classroom has become a National Trout Unlimited program which is described at National TU Trout in the Classroom. The December 9, 2009 issue of the Washington Post published the article "Raising a school (of fish) on their own" about this program.

PPTU member Jim Greene coordinates the Maryland TIC program and would welcome the involvement of fellow PPTU'ers who could occasionally look in on neighborhood schools taking part in TIC or lend a helping hand in case of emergencies, in carrying out trout release programs or acting as guest speakers at participating schools on trout-related topics, including fly casting or tying.

The Following Message Was Received From the Maryland Dept. of Natural Resources

Thanks to everyone for all your help in making this another TIC success this year. We at DNR certainly feel that the program is extremely helpful as a way to educate the generation that will influence future decisions being made concerning natural resources. The program, as I see it, is the spark that will make the necessary impression on those students fortunate enough to have taken part. Their contributions by way of their trout production will be an added benefit to our local waters.

Charles R. Gougeon
Maryland DNR Fisheries Service
Manager of Regional Operations - Inland Fisheries
Tawes State Office Bldg., B-2
580 Taylor Avenue
Annapolis, Maryland 21401
410-442-2080
301-854-6060

TROUT IN THE CLASSROOM UPDATE AND CALL FOR HELP

How about donating a few hours of your time on Thursday morning, January 7, 2010 to play an important part in PPTU’s major ongoing youth program – Trout in the Classroom?  All it takes is a car and, if possible, a small cooler.

Please read on.

The PPTU-initiated Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program for 2009-10 gets under way next month with distribution of fertilized Kamloops rainbow trout eggs to 21 Maryland  elementary, middle, and high schools – including four new ones in Montgomery, Baltimore, and Harford counties. One other school is hoping to get funding in time to start the program. Three are on sabbatical for the year because of facility remodeling or competing commitments for teacher time.

From its beginning in three Montgomery county schools, TIC now has expanded to seven Maryland counties: Montgomery County (seven schools); Howard County (four schools); Baltimore County (two schools); Frederick County (five schools), and Carroll, Garrett, and Harford counties (one school each).

Donated by a Washington state hatchery, the eggs will arrive in Chevy Chase by overnight air on Thursday, January 7.  The eggs usually reach Chevy Chase from Dulles by 0830 and are ready by 0915 for distribution to schools by TIC volunteers.  Each school will receive around 120 eggs.  The TIC student-teacher team in each school will then temper the eggs, gradually raising their temperature from near freezing to within a few degrees of the water temperature in the school’s 55 gallon TIC aquarium.  The eggs will then be placed in a breeder box in the tank, where they’re expected to hatch within ten days.

TIC food donated by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will also be distributed to the schools at that time.  A TIC school will rebag bulk food from DNR into packets for each school.

TIC volunteers will deliver the eggs and food to schools in Montgomery, Howard, Baltimore, Carroll, and Harford counties and to other volunteers for delivery to Frederick and Garrett county schools.  The more volunteers we have, the faster the eggs can get to the schools. And the shorter the time between the arrival of eggs and their placement in aquariums, the higher the likely hatching and survival rate.

If you would like to help this important effort, please phone Jim Greene, PPTU’s TIC coordinator, at (301) 652-3848, or send an email to: jgreene@waterwisp.com