Updated: May 6, 2005

DEP Partners With Trout in the Classroom Program to Bring Fish Life to Bronx River

Trout in the Classroom (TIC) is a conservation-oriented environmental education program for students in elementary school students through high school. Its goal is to create an understanding of surrounding water resources and to increase awareness of the importance of maintaining the high quality of both drinking water and local water bodies. Working in partnership with DEP, there are well over 100 schools participating in New York and upstate watershed areas. Throughout the year trout are raised from eggs, researched and studied in the classroom and then released into approved cold water streams and lakes.

The trout eggs are raised in an aquarium containing a chiller, filter and sterilizer. When the eggs hatch the students release their classroom-grown “fry” into local streams and brooks. The Bronx River, formerly one of the City’s most neglected and polluted water bodies, and which had been brought back to life through the efforts of local environmental groups, was selected as the recipient of this year’s baby trout.

On Tuesday, May 3rd, 45 students from Bronx Expeditionary High School and Evander Childs High School in the Bronx scattered 75 tiny trout fingerlings they had hatched from eggs in their classrooms into the Bronx River. Two additional trout releases are scheduled, one for Friday, May 13 and one on Friday, May 20. They will take place at Ward Pound Ridge Preserve, a Westchester County Park. Students from New York City and Westchester County schools will release their classroom-raised fingerling into brooks and streams in the Park.