Butler school district students release trout into Sullivan Run
-
Dave Andrews, right, reveals the rainbow trout before releasing them into Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Rainbow trout swim in a cooler prior to being released into Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Dave Andrews hands Emma Pistorius a bucket filled with trout on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Dave Andrews hands Joshua Pistorius a bucket filled with trout on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Dave Andrews speaks about the enhancement projects to Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, during a trout release event at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
From left, Ben Klugh, Maddie Krainbucher and Maddy Hay look for insects in Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Maddy Hay, left, and Maddie Krainbucher put creek specimens into a bucket with the help of Ben Rittenhouse on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius dumps trout into a creek with the help of her mom Jennifer during the “Fisheries Science Trout Release Day” at Alameda Park’s Jaycees Shelter on Saturday, May 3, 2025. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Students from Butler Area School District dump trout into Sullivan Run Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Murphy Dunn carries a bucket of trout to release them into Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Maddy Hay, left, and Maddie Krainbucher stir up Sullivan Run to net soil specimens on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Murphy Dunn releases fish with his dad, Harold Dunn, on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Students from Butler Area School District examine soil specimens under a microscope on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Madilynn Pistorious examines one of the specimens collected from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
From left, Joshua, Jennifer and Madilynn Pistorius, examine soil specimens from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius empties water from her boots on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius looks at a specimen through a microscope on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius and her mom, Jennifer Pistorius, look at a specimen through a microscope on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Butler Area School District students released trout into Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Butler Area School District students released trout into Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius empties water from her boots on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Joshua Pistorius looks at rocks on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Specimens from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Joshua Pistorius makes sure his specimen is secured on the microscope before checking it out on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Emma Pistorius shows off a specimen from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
From left, Harper Teribery, Joshua Pistorius and Madilynn Pistorius look at insects through microscopes on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Specimens from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Maddie Krainbucher looks at a specimen through a microscope on Saturday, May 3, at Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
-
Butler Area School District students collected specimens from Sullivan Run on Saturday, May 3, Alameda Park. Rob McGraw/Butler Eagle
BUTLER TWP — Four schools in Butler Area School District started raising rainbow trout in October, tending to them in their classroom aquariums to ensure they were fed and had good water quality until their ultimate release into Sullivan Run.
The older students — the ones at the intermediate and senior high schools — delved into environmental factors in their fisheries science classes, discussing how aspects of water temperature and tree cover affect wildlife in an ecosystem.
“The ground around the creeks filter the water and runoff,” Maddie Krainbucher, a senior at Butler Senior High School, said. “A lot of our environment affects our water quality, which is really cool, and learning about invasive species and how that can affect the ground.”
The younger students — those at Connoquenessing and Summit Township Elementary schools — mainly learned how to take care of the trout on a more basic level.
“They are so cute,” said Emma Pistorius, 5, of Summit Township.
Students from each of the four schools waved goodbye to their classroom rainbow trout on Saturday morning, May 3, at Alameda Park. The release has become a yearly tradition for the students and Dave Andrews, instructional coach for student engagement in Butler Area School District, who spearheaded the trout in the classroom project 18 years ago.
Each school brought coolers filled with water and rainbow trout to the lower part of Alameda Park, which Sullivan Run passes through on its way into Butler. Students released the trout into the stream, while also hearing about the park’s ecosystem from Andrews.
“This stream is really healthy,” Andrews said. “We did a study and found there were nine species of fish in this creek.”
Butler Area was the second school district in the state to take on a fish in the classroom program, and students began taking care of fish for release around 18 years ago, according to Andrews. The district is also one of the only ones Andrews knows of that offers fisheries science courses, although he travels the state to promote fish in the classroom programs through the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.
“As soon as I heard this was coming around I jumped on board right away,” Andrews said of the start of the fish in the classroom program.
Andrews said each of the schools with a fish aquarium is overseen by a teacher in that school, while he coordinates the program and the release in the spring. He said each school’s program has the same basic curriculum, where students will tend to the fish over the course of a school year.
Ben Klugh, a fisheries science teacher at Butler Senior High, spoke about the school’s program for fisheries science, and said the class at the senior high level gets into the weeds when it comes to environmental factors and their effects on an ecosystem.
“It’s a great experience for the students, it’s all hands-on projects,” Klugh said.
Following the release of the trout, Maddie and her classmate, sophomore Maddy Hay, demonstrated a method to collect soil samples from a creek, which the students then examined with microscopes. Trouts’ main food source is bugs and flies, Andrews said, so the students could see how healthy the stream was by examining the types of bugs collected in the soil samples.
Maddie has plans to major in marine science at Jacksonville University in Florida after graduation, and said she has a particular interest in sharks. She said she learned a lot in the biology and science classes at Butler Senior, and the fisheries science class gave her hands-on experience working with water and fish that taught her environmental lessons.
“It’s a really good class,” Maddie said. “Definitely making sure the water stays cold, because trout survive better in colder water … How much the environment, even how much the trees affect the trout.”
