Martinsville Bulletin, Inc.
P. O. Box 3711
204 Broad Street
Martinsville, Virginia 24115
276-638-8801
Toll Free: 800-234-6575
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
Teresa Setliff’s science students from Bassett High School released about 200 healthy brown trout into the Smith River recently as the culmination of a six-month-long project.
The Trout in the Classroom Program is in its fourth year in southern Virginia, with more than 26 tanks in local schools.
The Bassett students were the first class this season to release their trout, which they did on May 7.
Eggs arrived in December and hatched over Christmas break. The students were responsible for feeding, water changes and tank maintenance, and in the process they learned the importance of water quality in keeping trout healthy.
Chemistry, math and science are a part of the Trout in the Classroom curriculum, and some teachers even used the trout tanks to teach art and music.
More release dates will be coming up this month and in June.
Some of the Bassett High School students are in the Advanced Placement (AP) program, and in addition to the Trout in the Classroom project, they are learning water quality monitoring by studying the macro-invertebrate population of local streams.
Wayne Kirkpatrick, Dan River Basin Association president, has been training residents on how to monitor local streams in their communities for the past four years by collecting and identifying the macro-invertebrates. One of his students is Henry County Curriculum Specialist Donna Hicks, who led a recent water quality monitoring session for the group at the Bassett trout release site.
Water monitors identify the “bugs” at a monitoring site and then rate the stream on how healthy the water is in relation to how many organisms they find in the water. This provides water monitoring groups such as Virginia Save our Streams and Virginia Citizens for Water Quality a chance to collect data that help with studies on how to improve water quality in local streams. The students also plan to begin a study of the invasive aquatic algae known as didymo, aka “rock snot.”
Brian Williams, education outreach and conservation coordinator for DRBA, found two species of water snakes at the site and collected them to share with the students. A Northern water snake (Nerodia sipedon) and a queen snake (Regina septimvittata) were found in the bushes downstream and reluctantly became part of the outdoor biology lesson.
There are only two water snakes that live in Henry County, and both of these are non-venomous, Williams said. People often confuse the non-venomous Northern water snake with the venomous water moccasin or cottonmouth (Agkistrodon piscivorus); however, Williams said the Northern water snake and queen snake are harmless to humans and prey on frogs, weakened fish, crawfish and other aquatic animals.
Williams said the snakes are part of the ecological equation and help to indicate the health of a river system where they would normally be found.
The nearest location of the water moccasin is reported as the Dismal Swamp area in coastal Virginia, Williams said. |
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