South Lake Tahoe Students Seek to Restore Native Fish "It’s a Small Fish After All" Answers Disney Planet Challenge Published on Feb 25, 2010 - 6:47:18 AM
South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Feb. 25, 2010 - Stepping up to the Disney Planet Challenge, elementary school students in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., have partnered with a local nonprofit and government agencies on a project that they hope will help restore Tahoe's native fish, while winning the students a trip to Disney Land.
Mr. Comlossy's fifth-grade class at the Lake Tahoe Environmental Magnet School interviewed numerous organizations and agencies proposing projects to protect Lake Tahoe and its surrounding ecosystem, before selecting a proposal from the U.S. Forest Service and local nonprofit California Trout. The project, entitled by students, "It's a Small Fish After All," proposes to do something never done before in their watershed: raise and release native non-game minnows for recovery back into Tahoe streams.
In addition to California Trout and the Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit, the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, California Department of Fish and Game, and the US Fish & Wildlife Service are assisting the students in reaching their goal.
The project aims to enhance populations of native Mountain Whitefish and Speckled dace in local streams by rearing them in the classroom, improving their stream habitat prior to release and educating legislators and the community about the importance of these small fish.
Healthy populations of nongame natives such as Mountain Whitefish are critical to the success of larger game species, such as the endangered native Lahontan Cutthroat Trout, as well as nonnatives like mackinaw, brook and rainbow trout. Populations of nongame natives have been in decline due to the introduction of voracious, invasive warmwater fish such as bluegill and bass, as well as human impacts to the steams they live in.
The Forest Service has purchased an advanced free flowing tank system with the intention of supporting a long-term project that will spread to other schools throughout the region. "Currently, game fish like Lahontan cutthroat trout are raised for release, but never before have Mountain whitefish or native minnows come under the spotlight for rearing and release," said Sarah Muskopf, Forest Service fisheries biologist. "These minnows may not be flashy and sought after like game fish, but they are just as critical to healthy ecosystems and thriving sport fisheries."
Launched nationwide this year, the Disney Planet Challenge (DPC) is an opportunity for teachers and students to join a project-based learning competition that inspires environmental stewardship in children. DPC enables students and teachers to work together as a team in the classroom, while creating big changes in the larger community.
Students identify an environmental issue in their local community and come up with a solution that they manage and document from start to finish. Each class submits a project portfolio for evaluation by a national panel of experts, who consider environmental-relevance, student learning, changes in practices and attitudes, community involvement, lasting benefits to students, school and/or community, and originality.
To tackle the project, students are working in three teams: advocates, researchers, and managers. Advocates are conducting an outreach campaign educating various audiences -- from anglers to state senators -- on the importance of these overlooked native non-game fish. Researchers are collecting life history data to select which species to rear first and the stream for release. Managers are writing an action plan and conducting in the field restoration projects to improve stream habitat. Students and environmental partners have been putting in overtime, including Sunday afternoons, to get their project portfolio in by February 26, 2010. Students will find out this spring whether their project won the challenge.
"Of course the students are excited about the possibility of winning a trip to Disney Land, but they realize the competition will be steep. Their real goal is to make a difference in the native fishery and jump start a project that has never been done before in our area, said Jenny Hatch, California Trout Northern Sierra Regional Director. "Working with a group of students and teachers with this much passion for our native fish is what really inspires me to put in the long hours too!" For information or to get involved contact California Trout's Tahoe office at 530-541-3495 or by email at jhatch@caltrout.org
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