We are excited to announce the completion of four successful salmon release field trips into Longfellow Creek at Dragonfly Pavilion as part of the Salmon in the Schools program. Students who had spent months raising young salmon in their classrooms had the chance to release them and bring their learning full circle.
This is DNDA’s first year leading Salmon in the Schools programming for Louisa Boren K-8, Pathfinder K-8, Sanislo Elementary, and Highland Park Elementary. Throughout the school year, students explored the salmon life cycle and gained a deeper understanding of the habitat conditions salmon need to survive.
Students released their fry into Longfellow creek and rotated through different activity stations to make connections between salmon habitat and the greater watershed. Activities included the salmon release, a riparian scavenger hunt, an Enviroscape non-point source pollution model, a life cycle and habitat obstacle game, and seed paper love letter writing/drawing. In total, we worked with 171 students and 53 adults over the course of four salmon release field trips, where students released 532 fry!
We’re excited to start post-lessons with the participating classes, where we’ll discuss how we can create change to help salmon thrive in the future, and we’re looking forward to the possibility of expanding the program to other schools next year!
