- Written by Laurie Kay Scharett, TIC Teacher
- Courtesy of the NYC and NYC Watersheds TIC Program
Background: #
A successful trout release can involve several factors including planning ahead and documenting the event.
Procedure: #
- Take Pictures!! Assign one person on the trip to just be the photographer – it gets too busy for you to do it while you tend kids, and the pictures you get will tell so much more than words after the event – and when you are reporting back to stakeholders (administration, financiers) about how it went!
- If using a public site, get there before the kids do. There may be fishermen already there (you can’t reserve public areas) – if you explain that they are about to be run over by a swarm of kids, they will usually relocate. Also, be prepared to do some picking up before you begin, as many of these public sites are also the scene for evening parties, and you may have things like beer cans or broken glass left there before you came that you’d rather the kids not experience! (we used a rake and it went quickly!) Also, this gives you a chance to set up the table and materials for the habitat project etc, so that they kids have minimal wait time.
- Most public release sites are carry-in and carry-out, so bring trash bags (especially if eating lunch at the site). Also, no bathrooms, so have the kids go as close to leaving school as possible!!
- Bring as many adults as you can get – there are lots of little jobs (zipping life vests, collecting baggies, etc) that take extra hands!
