Jed Boal Reporting
Young Utah students gave a native fish a fighting chance to avoid extinction. They turned a problem at their school into a solution to improve the environment and create a fish habitat.
The least chub doesn't really have a flattering name and it's native habitat is shrinking, but the students at Escalante Elementary School in Salt Lake City are doing what they can to keep the least chub swimming, at least in Utah.
Nicolas Cerda, Escalante Elementary School: "We're watching the least chubs going into the stream because we were doing a lot of experiments to see if the water was dirty or polluted, but it was good."
The students worked with teachers, scientists from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources and University of Utah graduate students to construct wetlands at the school. Today, they released the chubs into their new habitat.
Kelli Ojeda, Escalante Elementary School: "I think the fishes are going to do well because we've already been testing the water for two or three days."
The least chub is a small fish native to northwestern Utah. The population of the fish has severely declined as non-native fish species and loss of habitat have crowded out the least chub. Today, it only lives in a few springs and streams in western Utah.
The students built the wetland last year with a 100-thousand dollar grant for improving school grounds. The water flows from a natural spring. Now that water fills these ponds. The chubs should cut down the mosquitoes, too.
These students don't have to open a textbook to talk about nature.
Machelle Dahl/Escalante Elementary School 4th Grade Teacher: "Kids get to experience it firsthand; they're engaged, they're not just looking at pictures. So they're doing real science, which is exciting."
The least chub is native of northwestern Utah, but it's been forced out of its declining habitat by non-native species, so this is a great re-introduction of the threatened fish.
Chris Harbison, Graduate Student in Biology: "You guys pshyched? It's probably the only fourth grade class in the nation that can say they've directly helped a fish come back from possible extinction."
The least chub only lives in a few springs in western Utah, and now this wetland behind Escalante Elementary..
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