The classroom of Mahar teacher Evelyn Cunha has a unique teaching station where students get a chance to watch brook trout hatch and grow. Through the MassWildlife Teaching With Trout initiative, her classroom is one of about 50 in Massachusetts where the program connects students with a very special resource. Mrs. Cunha, who also serves as club advisor to the Mahar Fish ’N’ Game Club, has been part of the program for the past few years and uses the growth of native brook trout from eggs delivered by MassWildlife staff to parr about two inches long to reinforce a number of curriculum points and expand the understanding of the ecosystem for the 70 students in her classes as well as members of the high school and middle school Fish ’N’ Game Clubs as well as other science students.
Teaching With Trout was designed to introduce students to the concepts of ecology, population biology, water quality and conservation. The goals of the program are to connect students to their local environment, learn about water quality and habitat health, and introduce conservation concepts related to local aquatic resources. In the classroom, students raise brook trout from eggs during the winter, then release them into approved lakes and streams in the spring. To be part of the program, schools must provide a very specific environment for the brook trout, a native species that is being challenged by loss of the cold-water habitat it requires.
That environment is expensive. Teachers in the program have to provide an appropriate aquarium set up and the one in Mrs. Cunha’s meets the requirement of 55 gallons. This would be expensive if it was not already in place but once a system is purchased, maintaining it costs very little. Besides the tank, you need a water chiller (trout need a temperature of not more than 68 degrees), a water filter, a water pump, an air pump, water chemistry test kits and reagents. MassWildlife provides food for every stage of the trout’s development. Mrs. Cunha gives a great deal of credit to the three high school co-op students whose job was monitoring and maintaining the aquarium habitat. Amanda Ramos, Jenn Dunphe and Nick Burnett made sure everything was perfect for the trout and Tuesday, this writer joined Nick as he carefully netted the 45 parr, from one and a half to two and half inches long, and then released them into Moss Brook. Moss Brook is a local trout stream that has been a quality trout stream since this fisherman and my friends rode our bikes there to catch “brookies.”
Mrs. Cunha noted that her middle school students at first expected the eggs to immediately hatch and quickly turn into fish swimming round. The process is slow and when the fish hatch, they instinctively hide in the rocks at the bottom of aquarium as they live off the egg sac which is absorbed when they are ready to swim around. At Moss Brook, Nick released the parr fingerlings into a pool and they quickly regrouped in an eddy. They need to stay together for protection and there was a very large hatch of mosquitoes taking place as they were released. The swarm at the surface meant that mosquito larvae were below the surface, and the young trout would soon be feasting on natural food as they adapt to life in the stream.
There is a great deal of interest in brook trout right now as the number of cold-water streams is dwindling. In Massachusetts and throughout the Northeast, biologists are using modern technology to learn as much as possible to keep this special species a part of the aquatic environment.
This week, my annual report from “Batman” in Erving was upbeat. He said he was watching a number of bats flying around and that is great news. White Nose Syndrome decimated the Northeast bat population, with over 95% mortality in some colonies beginning in 2008. It appears that the survivors have developed an immunity and slowly populations are recovering. It is a slow process as bats typically produce one offspring per year. They have, however, been found to live for up to 30 years. Indications are that the worst is over and that is encouraging. Watching bats fly around feeding on mosquitoes was always amusing and bass fishing at night was made more interesting as bats would make a run at your plug as it was cast.
This week, some turkey jerky was made in the dehyrator and it was quite good. There may be one more early morning hunt left in me as the Massachusetts spring turkey season ends tomorrow.
Last Saturday, it was my great pleasure to watch my younger daughter, Jillian, receive her Bachelor of Science Degree in Education from Fitchburg State University. Jillian, who is profoundly deaf, has worked long and hard to earn her degree and pursue her dream of becoming a teacher of the deaf. She did both and will be teaching at the Marie Philip School for the Deaf in Framingham, where she worked as she was studying at Fitchburg State. I could not be prouder.
Mike Roche is a retired teacher who has been involved in conservation and wildlife issues his entire life. He has written the Sportsman’s Corner since 1984 and has served as advisor to the Mahar Fish’N Game Club, Counselor and Director of the Massachusetts Conservation Camp. He can be reached at mikeroche3@msn.com.