Ute Pass Elementary students release dozens of trout into the wild as part of national conservation program

May 1—Early Monday morning, dozens of Ute Pass Elementary School students, each holding a plastic cup, knelt at the bank of Fountain Creek. Each cup held a few ounces of water and a fingerling rainbow trout, not much bigger than a goldfish.

One by one the sixth graders emptied the contents of their cups into the creek, bidding a bittersweet farewell to a fish they had spent more than six months raising from an egg about the size of a BB. In a year or two, if all goes well, those fish will reach maturity and, perhaps, lay eggs of their own.

For the Ute Pass kids, it was the watershed moment sought by nearly 6,000 Colorado elementary, middle and high school students involved in the Trout in the Classroom program, a conservation-based initiative spearheaded by Trout Unlimited.

For Miles Groth, a sixth grade science teacher, it was — finally — the first successful release after six years of attempts beset by stringent state regulations, the occasional error and bad luck.

"During the first COVID year, we all had to go home over Thanksgiving break, and all the fish died," Groth recalled. "And Colorado Parks and Wildlife had some regulations that made it difficult to release the trout into the wild."

Until recently, CPW required a certain amount of aquarium-raised fish to be submitted for pathogen testing, which meant the fish had to be euthanized.

But a recent testing exemption allowed the Ute Pass students — and others across the state — to release a certain amount of fish into creeks and streams.

"We're thrilled about (the exemption)," said Natalie Flowers, who coordinates youth education for the Colorado chapter of Trout Unlimited.

The main purpose of Trout in the Classroom, Flowers said, is to create budding conservationists by connecting students with their local watershed.

"Technology has begun to separate kids from nature," she said. "Fewer and fewer of them are playing outside. Trout in the Classroom is a way to get kids away from their screens and out into the world."

The Ute Pass students received about 400 eggs from Trout Unlimited in September, Groth said. Of those eggs, fewer than 60 survived long enough to grow into fingerlings.

"It's a small percentage," Groth said. "But out in the wild, the percentage is even smaller."

The Pikes Peak chapter of Trout Unlimited has a hands-on role in helping Ute Pass and seven other area schools acquire the funding, supplies and eggs to keep the TIC program going.

"This is a great program," said Michele White of the Pikes Peak chapter. "The kids really enjoy it, and it's helpful to the teachers because it adds a valuable teaching tool without significantly increasing their workload."

The students were responsible for feeding the young fish, monitoring the tank conditions, making adjustments as their waste products changed the pH and changing the water when, as sixth grader Brody Vankirk put it, "the water starts to look disgusting."

Vankirk, 12, said he and other students enjoyed the process of raising the trout from eggs to fingerling size. But as the fish grew, so did his attachment to them. A few days before the release, Vankirk was ambivalent about saying goodbye.

"I'm not sure I want to," he said.

Cayden Schwartz, Vankirk's classmate, was more definitive in his response.

"No," he said. "I do not (want to say goodbye)."

That, Ute Pass teacher Kara Jeck said, is a natural response.

"They've raised them from eggs. Some of (the students) have given the fish names," said Jeck, who is also involved in the TIC program. "So, some of our students are excited about releasing the fish. And some are not."

Under the TIC program, the trout are to be released in a state-approved stream near the school or within a nearby watershed. Dave Leinweber, owner of Angler's Covey in Colorado Springs, provided the necessary access.

Leinweber, who was recently elected to the Colorado Springs City Council, worked out a leasing agreement with the city that involved the portion of the creek that adjoined his fly-fishing shop on South 21st Street. Together with city stormwater specialist Jerry Cordova, Leinweber has spent the past few years making improvements and cleanups, as the area had previously been the site of several homeless camps. Cordova has also been monitoring the creek's conditions to make sure it's hospitable to the life forms that will keep the trout fed.

"This is really exciting," Leinweber said of the release. "Hopefully, it will be the first of many."

The classes transported the young trout to Angler's Covey in large buckets of water and spent some time gradually adding creek water to the buckets, so as not to shock the fish. When the fish had been properly acclimated, the students scooped them into the cups and headed for the creek bed.

A couple of the students got a little misty-eyed when they let the fish go, but the overall mood was one of excitement.

"This was pretty cool," said Schwartz after the release.

"I'm glad we did it," Vankirk agreed.

Lynn Burmeister, a Ute Pass parent, brought her 2-year-old daughter Imber to Fountain Creek to watch her big brother, Ryder, participate in the trout release.

"This is amazing," Burmeister said. "I hope they're still doing it when my daughter is old enough."

After helping to shepherd the Trout in the Classroom program to its first successful release at Ute Pass, Groth breathed a sigh of relief.

"Just seeing the smiles on their faces as they watched the trout go down the creek was awesome," he said. "It's the reason I got involved with Trout in the Classroom, and a big part of the reason I teach."