Get involved with Trout in the Classroom

We need your help to continue to serve kids in New Mexico and teach them about trout!

One of the premiere community involvement programs for Trout Unlimited is Trout in the Classroom (troutintheclassroom.org) – this program works with elementary and middle school kids to get them to appreciate the importance of conservation and protecting our watersheds. Students raise trout (usually triploid rainbows) from eggs to alevin to fry in their classroom, learning about biology, water chemistry and fish anatomy. The Truchas chapter in Santa Fe has been doing this for decades, in conjunction with New Mexico Game and Fish, and this year we have signed up thirteen teachers at twelve different schools from Penasco to Los Alamos to Pecos to Santa Fe.

For much of the year, our Trout in the Classroom coordinators handle the organization and administration of this program, but twice a year we need extra help from other Truchas chapter volunteers. In January, we pick up the eggs from the Lisboa Springs hatchery in Pecos and deliver them to the schools. This takes about two hours and we need more volunteers to cover all the schools in a reasonable amount of time to keep the eggs viable.

In May, the students take field trips to release the fish into approved waters, and we need volunteers to pick up and safely transport the fish to the site. We also like to set up a macroinvertebrate station, where volunteers capture bugs from the release waters and show the kids what the fish eat and use the survey to rate the quality of the water. Each field trip takes multiple volunteers who have a half day to spare to help.

Truchas chapter keeps a list of potential volunteers that we contact in January and May to fill out these positions. Please consider sending an email to mikejozwiakowski@gmail.com (chapter Secretary and Trout in the Classroom Coordinator) to add your name to our contact list – this does not obligate you to any specific dates, but just gives us your contact information when we call for volunteers for specific dates later. It can be a rewarding and FUN way to combine your passion for New Mexico trout fishing with serving our community of future young fly fishers.