Student-raised catfish help rejuvenate Glade Run
MIDDLESEX TWP — Dozens of students dumped their science class projects into Glade Run Lake Saturday morning, then watched as their work swam away into the depths.
A collaboration between the Butler School District and the Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission put 225 young channel catfish into the lake to kick off a day of stocking and fishing. Several students, parents and teachers from Butler schools were present to celebrate the event, which caps the district's second year of raising catfish in addition to trout.
Their efforts are steadily breathing life back into the lake after its draining in 2011 and refilling in 2017. Tim Wilson, a biologist for the commission, told the crowd that student efforts will likely soon supplant their own at the lake, as far as channel cats are concerned.
“In fact, I'm probably going to quit stocking Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission catfish and just let the co-op nursery take over in restoring and maintaining that population,” Wilson said. “It's done that well.”
Many a fish has been plopped into Glade Run Lake in the last two years. Trout are restocked annually for fishing, but the commission is also actively building up warm-water species in hopes of solidifying a permanent ecosystem. That includes bluegills, bass, crappie and catfish.
“The intention is for all of those fish to take hold in the lake and naturally reproduce and sustain themselves,” Wilson said. “Right now, the lake is governed by regulations that say you can't keep any of these warm-water fish. You can keep the trout, but all the other fish have to go back in if you catch them. Until all those populations are established, we're going to leave those regulations in place.”
Once officials think the lake can sustain harvest, the regulations will change, Wilson said.
Wilson said they've recently found a good sign that efforts like Saturday's are succeeding: the school-raised catfish released last year were found.
Dave Andrews, a teacher at Butler Intermediate High School, was the chief catalyst behind raising fish at Butler schools. His classes have been raising fish for years, and this year the project expanded to a second associated program at Butler Middle School run by fifth grade teachers Dave McCool and Bob Takacs.
“I only see this program getting bigger and better,” McCool said.
When catfish stocking began Saturday, those in attendance crowded around a truck by the lake's edge. It was a bit chilly from the wind, so teachers and biologists mixed cool lake water with the warmer water in their catfish bin.
From there, Andrews scooped fish with a net into another bin. That bin was treated with a sedative called MS222, which is naturally processed out of the fish in about a month, leaving them safe for human consumption.Once sedated, Wilson picked each out of the bin and clipped off a small fin on the catfishes' backs. The fin isn't needed, he explained, and provides an easy way for anglers to tell which fish were raised by Butler students.He dumped them into a third bin full of fresh water, which woke them back up, and then youngsters attending the event got to set them free in the lake.Students like Ryan Smith, an 11-year-old fifth grader in Takacs' class, said he enjoyed seeing the end of their long-term project.“I like seeing the fish grow up,” Ryan said. “And I liked releasing them.”He's more of a trout angler personally, but he said he grew to appreciate both species in the class.“I liked learning about trout and catfish life cycles,” Ryan said.His father, Jeff Smith, said he's glad such a program was available.“I think it's a nice hands-on way for them to develop interest in the outdoors,” Smith said.Karen McDonald, another parent of a fifth grader in the program, agreed. She's happy to start sharing a hobby with her son, Devlin.“I like to fish, but he didn't really have an interest until this program,” McDonald said.Devlin agreed that he's starting to come around to fishing. He said he was more into the art of raising the fish, though, and the intricacies of it.Butler students raise their trout from eggs, but the Fish & Boat Commission delivered them inch-long catfish to raise. Students got the fish in October, and they're now about four or five inches long.At the middle school, the teachers paired their fish programs with am aquaponic garden. They grew plants in the same water their catfish grew up in, so as to reuse nutrients from their waste.“It's really cool,” Devlin said.John Kay, a waterways conservation officer, said generating that kind of interest is what the program is all about.“It's really helpful in the sense that it educates our young people, not just about the biology, but it sparks an interest in conserving resources for the future too,” he said.Many present for the stocking stuck around for a day of other fishy activities. The commission offered license-free fishing for those registered, and a truck dumped a load of trout in at midday.
