Students learn fish identification during the River Education Days at Trempealeau NWR. Photo taken by D. Wenger. 05/06/08

Students are able to touch the mussels and fish during the presentation. Photo taken by D. Wenger, 05/07/2008

On May 6th and 7th, Jenny Walker and Darla Wenger joined forces with the staff at the Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) to connect more than 1,000 middle school children with nature and to provide them an opportunity to gain knowledge about the Mississippi River, fish, wildlife, birds, and other interesting topics.  The event was coordinated by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (Service) and the US Army Corps of Engineers and included presenters from the Service, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, U.S. Geological Survey, Leave No Trace, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.    

Participating students rotated through learning stations located throughout the refuge every 35 minutes, with a total of 14 stations.  Jenny and Darla presented a learning station that covered the life cycle of a freshwater mussel, threats against mussel populations, and Genoa’s mussel propagation program.  Jenny and Darla set up an aquarium holding different species of freshwater mussels and fish hosts for the freshwater mussels; such as lake sturgeon (Acipenser fulvescens)  and channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus).  In addition to the aquarium, Genoa National Fish Hatchery staff shared their fish on a stick collection to aid with fish identification.  Jenny and Darla shared this information with more than 100 children during the two- day event.  The children that visited Genoa’s learning station came from the Winona Middle School, the La Crescent Montessori Academy, Bluffview Montessori School from Winona, Minn., St. Patrick’s School from Onalaska, Wis., Black River Falls Elementary School, and the Galesville-Ettrick-Trempealeau (GET) Elementary School.

One student wanted to know if we named the fish that we raise at the hatchery.  His idea was to name the lake sturgeon Fred.  Jenny and Darla received many other ideas for fish names from the students attending this event.  The children had great questions and were excited to be outside and not indoors on a beautiful sunny day.  Outdoor presentations were interrupted both days by the beauty of the Mississippi Valley, the deep rattling of sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), and bowfin (Amia calva) splashing in the isolated backwaters of the Mississippi and Trempealeau River. 

The USFWS has recently adopted as one of its priorities to ensure that all of America’s children have enjoyable and meaningful experiences in the out-of-doors and to develop strong life-long connections with the natural world, this two day educational outreach program was a perfect way to accomplish this goal for the Service.