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Shad Restoration
Click here if you are a 2008 particpating teacher! ****************************************************** Check out the Press Coverage from our 2008 Program!
As another spring approaches, students throughout the Washington D.C. region will be helping return American shad to the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers. Since 1996, over 50 schools from Washington D.C., Alexandria, Fairfax, Montgomery and Prince George’s Counties have raised American shad in their schools and released them at sites below Great Falls, at Leesylvania State Park, and in the upper Anacostia River. The fish swim over 12,000 miles in their lifetime, leaving their release site in the Potomac River to swim out to sea and then returning to where they were born to lay their own eggs. In late March, shad tanks are assembled in the classroom by the students. In April, students and teachers go out onto the Potomac River to collect their shad eggs, accompanied by the last commercial waterman in Fairfax County, Virginia, Louis Harley, and Jim Cummins, the director of living resources with the Interstate Commission for the Potomac River Basin (ICPRB). The eggs are brought back to the school and placed in the shad tank, allowing students to watch the fry hatch throughout the week. Students then travel to release their young fish at Great Falls National Park, Leesylvania State Park, or along the Anacostia River. Last year, students in the area released over 20,000 fry into the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers.The program will be funded this spring in Virginia by the Virginia Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund and in Maryland by the Mirant Corporation. ICPRB, Living Classrooms of the National Capital Region (LC-NCR), and the Anacostia Watershed Society (AWS) coordinate the program. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation provides its classroom curriculum, Schools in Schools to complete this exciting, hands-on restoration effort. Thanks in part to these students’ efforts, American shad are returning to the Potomac River in increasing numbers. In addition to raising and releasing shad, students are cleaning up their schoolyards and area streams to improve the waterways for their returning fish. They are participating in trash pickups, planting trees, and building rain gardens. The shad restoration program is one of the first documented success stories where students are actually helping to save a troubled species. With the help of this year’s shad students, even more shad will grow up and return to the Potomac River. This shad conservation success story gives a message of hope, demonstrating that people really can make a difference in helping restore our rivers and fisheries. This year's program is being funded by Mirant Corporation, Chesapeake Bay Trust and the Chesapeake Bay Restoration Fund. For more information or to find out how to get your class involved, please contact: Jeanette O'Connor 202-488-0627 x26 joconnor@livingclassroomsdc.org
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