Rain showers have caused water to rush through Fountain Creek in Manitou Springs' Fields Park. But even with the high water, the noise can’t overcome the sounds of children engulfing the park on this particular morning.
The children triumphantly march towards the creek, chanting, "We are Ute Pass! Mighty mighty Ute Pass!" They carry with them a bucket of water holding rainbow trout ready to be released into the wild.
The fish in the bucket grew alongside the 6th graders at Ute Pass Elementary in Cascade, last school year. They watched them grow from the tiny, fragile “fry” life-stage, which occurs after they break from their eggs and begin feeding on what they find in the water.
“We kept them in a little container at the top at first,” said 6th grader Ivy Pulos. “And then once they got big enough, we let them into the tank to swim around.”
That's the beginning of the fingerling stage. Throughout the process, the students were responsible for feeding the fish and cleaning the tanks.
They started with 400 trout eggs at the beginning of the school year, said teacher Miles Groth.
“We went to the Pueblo Fish Hatchery, so we see it on a huge scale. So we did that at the beginning of the year when we got the eggs.”
The trout have gotten easier to grow since he started the curriculum nearly a decade ago– but they still run into challenges.
“We started losing fish, and I think they were mostly eating each other,” Groth said. “So yeah, we lost more than we probably should have.”
The students’ work raising the rainbow trout culminates in a fish release.
This past year was the classroom's most successful growing trout — with 102 fingerlings ready to release — only just exceeding the limit for most release sites.
“Most sites allow a maximum of 99 fish,” said Groth, “but this site allows us to release over a hundred.”
It's an event that the entire school assembles to watch at the end of each academic year. The younger students sit on the creek bank of the rushing stream.
“Today we get to say goodbye to our fish,” Groth said, guiding the students in the release. “We’ve raised them since October … We have 102 that we’ve taken care of all year. This is what they look like when they are adults. They're rainbow trout.”
The fish are in individual plastic cups. Students hold their hands over the top until they are close enough to release.
“Those fish will spread out and downstream here,” said Trout Unlimited volunteer Craig Hainey. “In about three years, they'll be something you could actually catch and eat if you wanted to.”
And they are an important part of the ecosystem, explains 6th grader Claire McMartin.
“They can help and improve the bug population.”
Most importantly, the students make memories that last a lifetime.
“I kind of just learned how cool it is to just raise them from little spawn or whatever,” said 6th grader Brayton Vankirk.
“It was really cool. It was a good experience. Fun.”
Those 6th graders are now 7th graders, and Mr. Groth and his new group of students are in the process of setting up the tanks for this year’s crop of baby trout.
