Dec 2019 Update: Trout in the Classroom is expanding to a university class endeavor for Chilton Middle and High School Students
“Trout in the Classroom” in the Chilton school system started with a short phone conversation between Brad Bowman, the Chilton Middle School Counselor and FVTU president Joe Bach in the fall of 2015. The conversation went something like this: Joe, I heard of a TU program called Trout in the Classroom and I would like to have it implemented our schools. Joe’s reply: “I heard of the program too, let me look into it and I will get back with you.
Joe’s research lead him the TU National web site ( www.troutintheclassroom.org) and other TU chapters that have successfully implemented the program. Joe contacted those chapters, listened carefully and took notes. He reached out to TU members in at least 5 different states including Wisconsin, learning successes of the program as well as tips on how to get the program started locally.
The first challenge was funding of the project. Enter stage - Chilton School teachers Tracy Bartels and Greg Sromek. Tracy and Greg submitted a preliminary grant request and were invited to submit a formal grant request to the Chilton Area Community Foundation (CACF). With the grant approved by the CACF and some donated equipment, both middle school and high school students began raising trout in high school and the middle school. It was the year 2015 and the students spent the winter months learning how to care for newly born trout, how to raise them to fingerling size, and getting ready to plant. Now, all that was needed was a local trout stream for a future home.
A few years earlier Joe Bach and fellow fisherman Norm Christnacht had spent winter months exploring Wisconsin rivers and streams looking for the perfect place to set hooks in trout. They found in the fishing regulation guide there was only one trout stream left in Calumet County, the home of Chilton schools. The stream was named Stony Brook. Joe and Norm explored the stream from its head waters to the confluence of the South Branch of the Manitowoc River. The South Branch makes its way east to the Manitowoc River, and then into Lake Michigan. However, all the land along Stony Brook was privately owned with no public access. There seemed to be no public place to plant trout. Joe recalled one farm that had an excellent site for planting hundreds of trout by a hundred+ students.
One evening Joe knocked on the door of the landowner a dairy farmer named Tim Sohrweide. After Joe introduced himself and his affiliation with TU, he was invited in to discuss using Tim’s property to plant trout in Stony Brook. It was a blessed evening as Tim’s daughter was a student participating in Trout in the Classroom. Tim said “yes” to allowing the trout to be planted in Stony Brook on his property. As time passed and relationships developed Tim and his father Dick along, with their neighbor Andy Pethan, granted WITU easements to improve Stony Brook on their respective properties.
The students then began planting trout in 2016. While all this was playing out the energetic TIC teachers went to work developing and expanding the program. Not only have the students been successfully raising trout for the past four years but also added aquaponics to the curriculum. Aquaponics is where water from the aquarium is used to feed plants prior to filtering the water. Thus, the trout’s body waist fertilizes the plants.
The day of trout planting is a very special day for the students. Some students plant the trout so solemnly that it appears to be kind of a baptism for the young trout. The day stream side is also spent learning more about the trout’s environment, food supply and includes electro-shocking by Adam Nickle, WDNR Senior Fisheries biologist and his crew from Oshkosh. Demonstrations of WAV stream monitoring along with other aspects of the trout’s habitat and environmental concerns are given by FVTU, WAV and Calumet County volunteers.
Adam Nickel WDNR Senior Fish Biologist took a great deal of interest in Stony Brook. The WDNR historical records showed that stocked trout in past years had no real reproduction. Center stage comes Joe Bach. Joe begins Water Action Volunteers steam monitoring protocol and after 4 years of data collection proves that Stony Brook has all the attributes including an enormous food supply for trout to flourish. With the data collected, more interest ensues on expanding the Trout in the Classroom learning process.
In 2018, Adam Nickel used his resources, and along with students and teachers, a fish tagging operation ensues. Two fish arrays are installed in Stony Brook to track the movement of the planted trout. Oh, my goodness now the students are forming an “in the field laboratory” as Tracy Bartels states. To everyone’s delight, the October 2019 shocking efforts found brown trout up to 14.5 inches that were tagged and planted in the spring of 2018.
The story does not end here. In the background Calumet Country Water Specialist Danielle Santry provides information and data which helps convince Shawn Sullivan and Steve Devitt from the Wild Rose Habitat Station to look at Stony Brook as an opportunity to restore Stony Brook to a class trout stream. Also, Tracy Hames, Executive Director of the Wisconsin Wetlands Association explores Stony Brook and concurs that Stony Brook has potential of becoming a class trout steam based on his observations and data provided by the country and WAV monitoring. In the winter of 2018 Shawn Sullivan and Steve Devitt develop stream improvement drawings and a cost estimate of improvements.
Enter stage - Jim Kettler from the Lakeshore Natural Resource Partnership (LNRP) which is a consortium of a dozen like-minded environmental groups. After a number of meetings between Joe Bach, Danielle Santry, and Jim Kettler, it was concluded that Stony Brook and Trout in the Classroom has all the attributes to qualify for a grant for Shawn Sullivan’s stream improvements.
Jim Kettler used his resources to find a funding source for Shawn Sullivan’s stream improvements. In the summer of 2019, the task was successfully completed and $83,000 was raised to fund the project. The largest contributor, the Fund For Lake Michigan, saw Stony Brook as a freshwater resource needed for the health of Lake Michigan. Calumet County, FVTU, LNRP and the WDNR all contributed to the financial funding of the stream improvements that were scheduled to start September 1st of this year.
This Fall’s wet weather was not kind to us. The first aspect of the stream improvements is to replace a farm bridge over Stony Brook that gives Tim Sohrweide access to his corn crop. The last week of August Tim was planning on harvesting his corn on September 9th. We could start Stream improvements 10 Days late. However, rains and wet fields would not allow harvest of Tim’s corn until the last week of October. Unfortunately, this was past the closing date of allowed steam work in Wisconsin Streams.
The next act in the “Life and Legend of Stony Brook” will begin the Spring of 2020 with 1100 feet of stream improvements.
Of special note in the life of Stony Brook are its wooded headwaters which are a mile up-stream from Tim’s property. To paraphrase the words of Shawn Sullivan “The area is beautiful and serene, it has not been disturbed by man and it appears as though today is the day our Creator formed it. Now the students of “Trout in the Classroom” will have a genuine University Class Laboratory in the Field.
If you are interested in participating in the Stony Brook stream improvements or would like to know more about this endeavor, contact Joe Bach of FVTU at joebach1g@gmail.com