2026 Trout Release season is underway for the Trout in the Classroom program here in the Croton Watershed!
I went out on Monday to help with the macroinvertebrate sampling, student macro identification, and the releases. It was spring break for Charlie and my parents were in town, so the three of them came along for the day.
The macroinvertebrate sampling was excellent, as it always is on the Cross River.
In about 10 minutes, Ihor, George, and I collected:
- 2 species of Stoneflies
- 2 species of Mayflies
- 2 species of Caddis (rock cased caddis and free floating green caddis)
- Crawfish
- Blood midges
- Water pennies
- Hellgrammites/Dobson fly larvae
- Crane fly larvae
- Horsehair worms
- Scuds
- Eggs (probably fallfish)
By the time the students arrived and we were helping them identify the macros, little black stoneflies were hatching and landing on them. Some loved it and some hated it, but it was great to be able to show them both the nymph and adult stage of the stoneflies.
Charlie walked around with my Bug Book and showed the students pictures of adult stoneflies and mayflies.
“This is a stonefly. It means the water is really clean!”
Charlie, 4 years old
He is exactly right, stoneflies are an indicator species and are only found in clean water.
As much as the students are fascinated with seeing the bugs from the stream that the trout eat, the main event is definitely releasing the baby trout they hatched in their classrooms and cared for.
Mackenna from the NYC DEP walked them through equalizing the bucket temperature with the stream and handed out baby trout to the eager students, who said goodbye and wished the baby fish well.
After the students all got to release trout, they were nice enough to let Charlie release one, too. He was thrilled.
It was a great day. I signed up to help with another one next month.
If you are a teacher and are interested in raising trout in your classroom, or a TU member interested in helping with a TIC release, reach out!
Last year’s post:
Leave a Reply