Pierce Conservation District and partners Foss Waterway Seaport Museum, Museum of Glass, and Next Move hosted 24 schools and 1,500 students at Salmon Release Field Trips this March over two weeks. Each field trip was the final step in Tacoma Public School students’ months-long journey of raising chum or coho salmon from egg to fry in their classrooms.

Goodbye, salmon fry!

Over an hour of excitement, they cycled through fun, educational stations where they got to practice real-life data collection skills like testing water quality, observing macroinvertebrates (or as one student called it, “macaroni invertebrates”), walking through nature and talking through observations, releasing salmon, and even seeing if they could survive as a salmon in our salmon obstacle course.

Students get to learn while moving and being active in the salmon obstacle course.

Practicing responsible stewardship is a task anyone can do. Simple steps like picking up after your dog poop or appropriately sorting and disposing of your trash makes a huge difference. Dog poop and other human sourced pollution introduces excess phosphorous and nitrogen into the water, which can throw off the aquatic ecosystem’s groove. 

We're also always looking for volunteers to help shepherd the next generation of scientsts and conservationists. If you're interested, consider becoming a volunteer education docent!

Students comparing notes.