Steven Doll (right) and Wade Beardsley (left) work together to replace rusted hardware cloth on mussel culture cages. - FWS photo

Steven Doll (left) and Wade Beardsley display some of their hard community service work. - FWS photo

In order to produce well rounded college graduates, universities are beginning to require students to perform community service to meet their graduation requirements. 

At Winona State University, Dr. Todd Paddock is requiring that his students taking “Social Problems on the Upper Mississippi River” course, to perform 20 hours of community service just for the class. 

One catch to Dr. Paddock’s community service requirements is that the community service hours have to be with an organization working on Mississippi River issues. 

With this in mind, two students Steven Doll and Wade Beardsley contacted Genoa National Fish Hatchery (NFH) in order to complete their community service hours.  Steven is a resident of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and is familiar with Genoa NFH, and some of the hatchery’s work conducted on the river.  They each spent 3 hours replacing old hardware cloth on mussel culture cages. 

These cages are 5 years old and much of the hardware cloth has become rusted and falling apart.  The new hardware cloth will ensure that these cages will be in service for another 4-5 years. 

Community service and volunteer hours are a win – win situation for both the volunteers and the hatchery.  Volunteers get to take pride and ownership in the projects they work on, and the hatchery gets increased production for the station. 

For information about volunteering at Genoa NFH, please contact the hatchery office at 608-689-2605 about future opportunities.