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TAYLORSVILLE — Thursday is a big day for a group of environmentally minded elementary school kids in Taylorsville. They’re setting free a lot of the animals they have been raising since December.
Students at John C. Fremont Elementary School know they’ll most likely never see their friends again. In fact, some of them won’t survive until the end of the week. Still, it’s time to say goodbye to the rainbow trout they’ve been raising since they were eggs. They’re being released into the Sandy Urban Fishery Pond Thursday morning.
“The kids love the program and I didn’t think I’d get [emotionally] attached to trout, but, I am attached to trout, too,” sayid teacher Suzette Wilson.
A lot of work has gone into the fish being released into pond. Wilson said it took a long time to get approval to raise the trout. Now, they have dozens of the two to three inch little guys.
“I’m guessing we have about 70,” she said.
Trout are not the only animals in Wilson’s “Living Classroom,” which is an after-school program for third- through sixth-graders. They have rabbits, chinchillas, guinea pigs, rats, a quail, a pigeon and a ferret. Wilson thought watching the trout hatch and grow would be a good way to teach the kids about life cycles.
“They start out as a small egg, the size of a BB, and it’s peach-colored," Wilson said of the trout. "When they first hatch, there’s a head and the yolk sack, which is almost as big as the egg, and a little tail.”
But, before the trout get dumped into the pond, the kids had to learn what life would be like for the trout outside of the tank.
“They need really cold water. The lake we’re going to release them in is really, really cold,” said student Alexa Cook, who became a bit of an expert on the trout. She said the trout will eat insects and smaller fish while in the pond, and one of them tried to eat the teacher.
“The trout only have top teeth," she said. "They’re very sharp. [One of them] bit Ms. Wilson.”
Bob Dibblee is with Trout Unlimited. He said there are hundreds of schools with trout raising programs across the country, but only three in Utah. He’s hoping to increase that.
“All three schools will do the same thing next year because they have the equipment and everything we gave them," he said. "I’m shooting for 10 schools, but, I’d be happy if we get five.”
Dibblee said funding is the biggest issue. Each tank costs roughly $1,800.
