Elementary school field trips are always exciting, especially when you get to name and release your own personal salmon.
In May, about 340 students in the Port Angeles School District visited the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe’s hatchery to release the salmon they raised in their classrooms through the statewide Salmon in the Schools program.
The program is a collaboration with the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, North Olympic Salmon Coalition (NOSC) and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“The goal of the Salmon in the Schools program is to connect kids with the life cycle of salmon and salmon ecology—especially in areas where there are great opportunities to foster more place-based connections to those things,” said Chelsea Korbulic, a NOAA fisheries outreach and engagement specialist who works closely with the tribe. “Plus, fisheries science concepts are included, giving something for kids to think about why science is important.”
NOSC connected students with the tribe to raise Elwha River coho—from eggs to fry—in Port Angeles’ five elementary schools, then release them into the Elwha River watershed.
“With rising transportation costs and tight school district budgets, students don’t have a lot of opportunities to get out of the classroom to learn,” said Lindsay McCord, NOSC’s education and outreach coordinator. “By providing free programming and covering busing expenses, we are able to get students outside to learn, build connections with the world around them, and create memorable learning experiences.”
Partnering with the tribe provided another layer of education and local perspective to the salmon program. Carmen Watson-Charles, the school district’s tribal liaison and the tribe’s cultural manager, shared Klallam stories with the students, who also got to visit the tribe’s hatchery and learn about the tribe’s efforts to restore the Elwha watershed for salmon.
The students took away just what the organizers wanted—education, fun and lots of interactions with salmon.
A Franklin Elementary fifth grader wrote in a thank you note, “You taught us all about the pair of salmon and how they made it to the Elwha River. … Then we got to release the salmon. I named mine Jr. and told him to have at least 3,000 kids and let me meet the lucky mom. We also got to feed the baby salmon. I fed two groups of steelhead trout, they were very hungry. I remember how they all started to jump up and eat, it was so funny, more like hilarious.”
A student gently releases juvenile coho salmon into a side channel of the Elwha River. Story: Tiffany Royal; Photo: North Olympic Salmon Coalition
