MATTAWA — One after another the children picked up a cup, each with its own salmon fry swimming around, and one after another they poured the contents into the Columbia River.

It was a windy day, with the waves blowing back toward the rocky beach, and the children watched carefully as the tiny fish worked to get away from shore.

It was the second salmon release party for elementary students in the Wahluke School District, the last step of a program that started with fish tanks and salmon eggs in the office of every elementary school in the district.

“The program is called Salmon in the Classroom,” said coordinator Chuck Hubbard.

The goal is to teach students about the life cycle of salmon, he said, but it’s about more than raising fish. It’s also a way to give children examples of the natural world around them, some of it right around Mattawa. Salmon in the Classroom also introduces students to the importance of salmon to the Wanapum community.

“Something we can do to strengthen our partnership with them,” Hubbard said.

Salmon and the lessons they teach can be used in every class from grade school through high school, he said. There are science lessons about the fish life cycles and the river ecosystems; science and social studies lessons on the impact of the river’s hydroelectric generation system on fish and fish populations; and social studies lessons about the way salmon were and are part of the local culture.

“Lessons at every level, really,” Hubbard said.

Former Wahluke Junior High science teacher Mike Bosko introduced Salmon in the Classroom to the district, Hubbard said. Bosko was a part-time fisheries biologist and used the fish in his science curriculum. The students fed and watched the fish for about 45 to 50 days, Hubbard said.

“An afternoon in the middle of April is when we usually let them go,” he said.

He wanted to keep Salmon in the Classroom going after Bosko got a new job.

“I didn’t want it to just evaporate,” he said. “I kind of took custody of the tanks.”

But Hubbard and his Salmon in the Classroom partner Jonathan Betz, the district’s garden and sustainability specialist, didn’t want to restrict it to one classroom.

“We decided to house them in each elementary school,” he said.

That translated to a fish tank at Mattawa, Saddle Mountain and Morris Schott STEAM elementary schools.

“We had one (tank) in the lobby at every school. Everybody in the school could see it,” Hubbard said. “I like having it where everybody can see and talk about it. It kind of drives curiosity.”

The project starts right after winter vacation, he said.

“The hatchery delivered the (salmon) eggs the first week we came back to school in January,” Hubbard said.

The fish and their tank also taught lessons that weren’t just about school subjects - the fish had very specific requirements to survive. The Salmon in the Classroom program provides the salmon eggs, salmon food, the tanks and a chiller, because salmon fry don’t like room-temperature water. Their water must be 50 degrees or colder.

“They have to have really clean, really cold water,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard and Betz got the students to help feed the fish and keep an eye on the tanks. Classes were recruited to do the feeding each week, and each school’s leadership class helped feed and keep an eye on the tanks and equipment. They let an adult know if something was wrong.

The fish tanks generated a lot of interest.

“The kids couldn’t go to lunch without stopping by the tank,” Hubbard said.

Students had questions every time he stopped by a school to feed or check the tank, he said.

The salmon were released at the Desert Aire Park. Representatives of the Wanapum tribe told the children about the place of salmon in the community and some of the legends that surround them.

Then Hubbard and Betz scooped each fish out of the tank into a plastic cup, the students took them to the water’s edge and emptied the cup. Some of the fish got hung up on the rocks, and kids tried to help them on their way. Some fish found a channel through the rocks and quickly vanished from sight.

All WSD students and their parents were invited, and Hubbard said some families told him they had not been to the park previously.

“For some of them it’s the first opportunity to explore that area,” he said.

Cheryl Schweizer may be reached at [email protected].