...The program is one that allows local elementary students to raise young steelhead trout, and then release them into the wild. It benefits a somewhat troubled species while teaching our children how to be stewards and caretakers of the environment....
The front page story gives details. Salmon out of the classroom: Long-time educational program victim of state budget cuts
...Acting on an executive order from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the California Department of Fish and Game was forced to cut the position that oversees the popular and long-lived Salmon in the Classroom program. That's the one that has kids raising steelhead from eggs before releasing them into a river to grow....
Pointing out that when teachers ...started using Salmon in the Classroom, things were different. Today, steelhead in the region are protected, and Fish and Game requires its involvement -- or that of an approved contractor -- to oversee how the eggs and fish are handled, and to ensure that they're raised in stable conditions.
That oversight is a time-consuming job, and Fish and Game says it's not something that can simply be taken on by remaining staff...
Now, there are many classrooms in the County who use this as part of their curriculum. Many of those teachers have science backgrounds, and even if they don't, you have to believe that anyone who has what it takes to get a teaching degree also has what it takes to be able to manage an aquarium. At minimum these teachers have been doing it, many of them have been doing it for YEARS. These are the kind of people who DEVELOP programs like this in the first place.
This is a case of the State regulations and bureaucracy KILLING independent thought, action and instruction. Kids are learning a far greater lesson here. That they cannot do anything without approval of the Government (Big G). That they cannot think and act for themselves, or do anything without permission.
The kids know they can raise the fish. They've been doing it. They know their teacher knows how to do it. They've been doing it. The guidelines are all there, the curriculum is all there, the aquariums are all still intact. The will is there. The teachers are fully capable.
South Fortuna Elementary School recently invested $900 in each of four classrooms for equipment like chillers, pumps and aquariums when it learned that Fish and Game wouldn't be able to provide eggs or support for their nearly self-sufficient program. It was highly disappointing, said third grade teacher Jim Buschmann, who said the fish provided a way to teach a variety of topics, including how human behavior effects the environment.
”It created a tremendous amount of interest among the students,” Buschmann said, “they were able to watch the whole life cycle.”
...Habib said she plans to talk with her students and their parents and get them involved in writing letters and making calls to elected officials in an effort to find some way to restore the program.
”That's excitement you don't want to lose,” Habib said....
This is a SIMPLE matter of relaxing some regulations to allow this program to go through without the state funding it doesn't even need.
Go back to the way the program undoubtedly began, with innovative teachers, dedicated volunteers and curious minds, working to create something great. Before it got the kiss of death - becoming a state program.
UPDATE:
☛ TS Salmon -- coming back to a classroom near you
Like a steelhead in high water, the renowned Salmon in the Classroom program just won't quit.
Acting on an outpouring of public support to save the hands-on classroom steelhead-rearing project, a grassroots campaign was quickly launched after news of the program's demise was learned. Now, not only is a volunteer, county and state partnership vowing to revive the aquarium project this year, it may grow to become something more.
”Hands-on learning is something that you just can't beat,” said Humboldt County Superintendent of Schools Garry Eagles.
The California Department of Fish and Game in October sent a letter to more than two dozen teachers who had raised steelhead in classroom aquariums, informing them that a key position had been cut, and no one would be able to oversee the program. Teachers were saddened to learn of the suspension of the project.
But the beloved program was not about to get washed out to sea. There are many teachers with strong experience raising steelhead, and a number of fisheries professionals interested in seeing the effort carry on.
”If you start talking to the kids and the families that have gone through this the last 20 years -- you know those milestones you go through in school -- they always come back to 'Are you still raising fish?'” said retired teacher Jeff Self, who has a long history raising salmon in Blue Lake, Freshwater and Eureka city schools.
On Friday, representatives with the county and Fish and Game and volunteers met to figure out how to restore Salmon in the Classroom, and ensure that kids would see steelhead raised from eggs this year and into the future. Things quickly came together.
”We've got a plan, we've got a strategy and we've got people lined up,” said Fish and Game senior biologist Scott Downie.
The group needs to raise about $20,000 to contract a volunteer and for supplies and travel. There are about 33 classrooms in the county scheduled to raise steelhead from eggs procured from the Mad River Fish Hatchery this year. Fish and Game's Fortuna office has agreed to oversee permitting and other elements.
Eagles said he believes there are funding sources that can contribute to the program in the short term, and expects to have them in place by the beginning of December.
Another potential hurdle for the program has been cleared. A lawsuit lodged by the Pacific Rivers Council and the Center for Biological Diversity in 2006 looked to force Fish and Game to do an environmental analysis of its decades-old fish stocking programs.
That could have shuttered Salmon in the Classroom, because it may have closed the Mad River hatchery and prevented students from releasing the steelhead they raised in their classrooms.
But Sacramento Superior Court Judge Patrick Marlette on Friday ordered the environmental analysis -- after lengthy negotiation between the parties -- while allowing certain stocking programs to continue, including the Salmon in the Classroom effort.
Eagles hopes to take the program further in coming years. He's looking into how California State Parks and the K-12 system might work to bring videoconferencing into classrooms in an effort to link schools to each other and to park interpreters.
Virtual field tours can be arranged through such a program, he said, and an existing curriculum is available.
This is so sad! Salmon Cr. School did this for awhile and the kids loved it.
ReplyDeleteMine, too, Kym, it's a phenomenally good thing.
ReplyDeleteAND it ought to be able to continue without needing funding or approval or interference from the State.