A Gateway to Stewardship: Salmon and Trout in the Classroom

Lee Orlando has been raising salmon in her Burlington, Vermont sixth grade classroom for 26 years. 

“Lee has done it for so long it’s like lore,” said Stephanie Larkin, resource room specialist with the Patrick Leahy Lake Champlain Basin Program (LCBP). The LCBP has supported egg delivery to Lee’s classroom for around two decades. 

Each year, Lee’s incoming sixth graders join students around the Lake Champlain watershed—and the entire nation—in eager anticipation of what has become a long-standing and widely adopted environmental education program.

Throughout the winter and into spring, students learn about salmon and trout lifecycles and habitat through the transformative process of raising eggs in classroom tanks, watching as they hatch, and ultimately releasing the young fish into a local waterway. 

Mimicking Nature: Temperature and Timing 

Before the eggs arrive in the classroom, students are already primed for the task of creating and maintaining the proper conditions for egg development. This involves learning two important concepts: the lifecycle of landlocked Atlantic salmon and their environmental needs. 

Atlantic salmon are migratory species that return each fall to tributary streams to spawn, eventually burying their eggs in the gravelly bottom of cold, clear, well-oxygenated streams. Warming water in the spring triggers eggs to hatch into “sac fry,” also known as alevins.

For a short period of time, the alevins absorb nutrients from their yolk sac. Once the yolk sac is gone, typically by late April, fry begin to feed on aquatic insects. When they reach two inches in length, salmon are called parr. These still-young fish spend between one and three years in the stream in which they hatched, feeding and seeking cover from predators. 

Once ready to transition to larger waters, parr transform into smolt and migrate into the lake where they grow quickly. Within a year or two smolt reach maturity and spawn in the home waters where they born, continuing the life cycle. 

Every classroom’s process for receiving eggs differs somewhat and relies on partnerships with state agencies and local watershed organizations. To supply Lee’s classroom, Stephanie makes an annual mid-January trip to the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Fish Hatchery in North Chittenden, Vermont, where she picks up hundreds of salmon eggs and delivers them to the classroom.

“The kids are usually beside themselves with excitement,” Stephanie said. 

Students work with their teacher to match tank conditions to river conditions. The classroom chillers are able to maintain cold water temperatures. They are draped with insulating covers that keep the interior dark, as though the eggs were beneath a layer of ice. 

As spring approaches, students gradually begin to warm the tanks. The process involves some calculation: a classroom will be notified of their release date by their state conservation office, then determine the rate at which to incrementally raise the water temperature. 

Hatching eggs mark the beginning of spring. Depending on the timing of the hatch and release day, feeding may be needed as the sac fry eat through the yolk sac and begin to require additional food. 

Trout (and Salmon) are Made of Trees 

Trout are Made of Trees, a children’s book written by April Pulley Sayre and illustrated by Kate Endle, follows a leaf as it falls from a tree into a stream, decomposes, and becomes food for aquatic insects which are in turn consumed by a trout. The story closes with two children and their father enjoying a picnic lunch of trout and exploring the nature of the food web. 

Trout are Made of Trees is sometimes included in Trout in the Classroom curriculum. These educational tools have emerged in an effort to inspire next generations to understand the challenges facing these vital species and steward the habitats that sustain them. 

Widespread damming and habitat disturbance throughout the 1800’s caused local extinction—or extirpation—of Atlantic salmon from the waters of the Lake Champlain Basin. Brook trout populations have also suffered the effects of habitat disconnection, warming waters, and reduced water quality. Concerted efforts by fisheries and conservation groups have brought back salmon and supported brook trout populations, but pressures remain. 

Over the course of the school year, students learn about these multifaceted issues—which face the very fish they are seeing develop in the classroom. It is an experience that raises the stakes of conservation and transforms how students understand their role as stewards and caretakers of their local waters. 

In the words of New York student Ella King, who is featured in the LCBP’s Salmon in the Classroom short film, “I think that most people in my class are really going to try to help benefit the lake for the rest of their life. Maybe we can get the salmon population back to where it should be.” 

Into the Wild: Release Day 

By May, the classroom is buzzing with the excitement of release day.  

On the designated date, students take a trip to a local tributary stream. By this time, they’ve learned about the full lifecycle of the Atlantic salmon, the species’ value to our aquatic ecosystems, and the challenges that lay ahead for the soon-to-be-released young fry. 

On a typical release day, Lee’s students enjoy fair weather and take their time releasing the fry into Joiner Brook, a tributary of the Winooski River. Some years, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife representative joins to discuss regional conservation efforts. 

This year, heavy rains preceding the release day raised the river level. For the students’ safety—and to avoid sending the salmon directly into the rapids—Lee identified a slow-moving pool near the shore and invited students down one or two at a time to receive their salmon and let them go.

Before long, all of the salmon were released. Even though the process moved quickly, several students paused to name or observe their salmon before letting them swim away. Others lingered after, watching as the fish disappeared into the stream. After letting go of the fish, students were tasked with finding a river stone to bring home with them to serve as a reminder of the day. 

A Nationwide Project for Cold, Clean Water 

Trout Unlimited is a founding organization behind Trout in the Classroom. A signature environmental program, Trout in the Classroom is described as a “gateway stewardship experience for students.”  

Salmon in the Classroom is a sibling program of Trout in the Classroom, and the two programs are sometimes referred to together as Salmonids in the Classroom. Partnerships are key to the longstanding success of these programs, as participating educators receive support from state conservation agencies, national non-profit organizations, and local watershed groups. 

The species raised in a particular classroom is always native to the region and informed by conservation priorities. Salmonids in the Classroom programs can be found across the United States in regions where salmon and trout reside. 

A Washington State program delivers coho salmon eggs to participating schools. In Alaska, students learn about Pacific species. In landlocked Michigan, classrooms raise and release Chinook salmon, which were introduced to the Great Lakes in the 1960’s. 

Here in the Lake Champlain Basin, Salmon and Trout in the Classroom programs have been widely adopted by educators and align with state conservation goals. 

On the New York shore of the lake, the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) provides eggs to over 20 Adirondack classrooms, and the Lake Champlain chapter of Trout Unlimited provides equipment and logistical support. Watershed organizations like Lake George Association also support local schools in accessing the required equipment and coordinating with NYSDEC. In Vermont, Trout Unlimited works with approximately 100 classrooms, with a primary focus on brook trout. Several classrooms, like Lee’s, still focus on salmon.

When they venture out into the watershed for release day each year, hundreds of students in our region form lasting memories with one another, the fish, and the water. Drawing a direct line from early educational experiences to future stewardship is rarely straightforward, yet year after year Salmon and Trout in the Classroom sparks curiosity, insight, and excitement in students across the Lake Champlain Basin. Thanks to the many dedicated educators across our region, the future of the Basin is sure to be in good hands.