Trout release helps creek
PENN TWP — About 50 students from Butler Intermediate High School got their feet wet Wednesday morning at Thorn Creek, when they became the latest group to participate in a nearly-decade-long stream rehabilitation project.
The project is coordinated by science teacher Dave Andrews, who teaches seventh and eighth grades at the district and leads a months-long project where students hatch and raise brook trout in the classroom before releasing them into the creek.
This year students released 71 juvenile brook trout into the creek, which was grievously damaged in 2004 when a building in Saxonburg was gutted by fire.
Ryan Harr, a watershed specialist with Butler County Conservation District, said the fire and the emergency response to it, created a “major pollution event,” that heavily damaged the ecosystem of the waterway.
“It basically killed everything in the stream,” Harr said.
Today Thorn Creek has fully recovered from the damage, Harr said, but as part of the legacy of rehabilitation Andrews' program continues to bring students to the waterway, where they perform tests on the water, release trout and observe a lineup of other biological demonstrations.
Andrews said the program is one of the district's most popular offerings, and the event provides an important opportunity for students to get hands-on experience in environmental studies.
“For some of these kids, it's the first time they've ever seen a creek,” he said. “It gives them a way to get outside and make a connection between what we're doing in the classroom, and the outside world.”
XTO Energy also partners with the district as part of its emphasis on STEM education. Steve Forde, the company's public and government affairs manager, called the school's trout-release program an exercise that highlights issues ranging from water quality to the importance of environmental balance.
“It's really impressive to see the wealth of knowledge they (students) have been able to gather since they started on this project last Thanksgiving,” Forde said.
The project begins each year when Andrews and his students receive brook trout eggs from the state Fish and Boat Commission and use specialized equipment to hatch and rear them in an indoor tank. Andrews said the students also learn about things like the proper water temperature and how to test for water quality during the months-long process of caring for the eggs.
The program culminates when students get to release their young trout into the stream with the help of Andrews, officials from the state Department of Environmental Protection and other specialists who hold demonstrations on everything from fly fishing to how biologists use the study of macroinvertebrates like mayflies to track the health of watersheds.
Andrews said that the classes also create video yearbooks of the project — a process that includes the use of a remote-controlled drone used to shoot video this year.
