Students release classroom-grown trout into natural habitats

#flashbackfriday to one of the most anticipated days of the year for our Trout in the Classroom students: release day!

In May, students from Hillcrest, Stocktrail and Meadowlark elementary schools released their classroom-grown rainbow trout into the Gillette Fishing Lake, while Rozet students traveled to Newcastle to release their fishy comrades in Black Elk Pond.

Last school year was Campbell County School District’s first participating in the conservation education program and across the state 70 schools and more than 6,400 students participated, according to Wyoming Game and Fish. The school turnout in Wyoming was more than double the previous year and the number of students involved nearly tripled!

On release day in Gillette, students heard from Reed Moore, an aquatic invasive species specialist with Wyoming Game and Fish, about how many fish are annually stocked at Dalbey Memorial Park and what kinds of fish live in the water – catfish, crappie and trout to name a few.

In total, CCSD students and teachers released more than 100 trout fingerlings into the local fishing lake in what at least one Hillcrest fifth-grader called her “favorite day of the year”

To read more about the Trout in the Classroom experience, check out the Trout in the Classroom story published in February on CCSD's District News webpage.