Students and teachers released nearly 100,000 young salmon and steelhead smolts into Gheer Creek from their net pens in Carlisle Lake in Onalaska this week.
Local officials, state lawmakers and well over 100 local elementary and middle school students came to witness the excitement.
Onalaska High School Career and Technical Education (CTE) Instructor Kevin Hoffman and a group of students and other helpers arrived at the lake Tuesday morning around the time class began — just after 8 a.m. The group prepared to raise the nets on Carlisle Lake, forcing fish into a hose that would pump water, and the fish within, into Gheer Creek a few hundred feet away.
Many of the local and state officials as well as a staff member for U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Skamania, came to visit the program that has continued to grow in fame and reputation in recent years, even gaining state support.
The official release began at about 10 a.m. as students, helpers and a few observers made their way out onto the floating net pen platforms. The net pens look similar to a small dock arranged into three squares where large nets hang from the rails allowing thousands of young fish to live in the lake. The fish inside adapt to the outdoor environment from their original indoor tanks, with a bit more room to grow and relative protection from predators.
Students and helpers first gathered around a net pen containing just under the original 75,000 Coho salmon. One student used a net to grab a few of the dead salmon smolts — juvenile salmon — out of the pen before their release. As the pump was fired up, it sucked the small salmon up, carrying them through a clear tube to Gheer Creek. Students and helpers slowly hauled the net up bit by bit, funneling more and more fish toward their eventual release.
The creek appeared to be the most exciting portion of the event to many of the observers as they watched the pump dump thousands of small fish into the creek. As they released fish, a state hatchery specialist with the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife, Paul Groppel, netted a few salmon at a time and measured them, calling each measurement out to a nearby student.
After each and every little coho took the ride of a lifetime through the tube and came out on the other side, the crew moved onto the second and final pen containing between 15,000 and 20,000 steelhead trout.
According to Groppel, WDFW is aiming for fish to be a certain size upon release. The goal for coho is 18 fish per pound and the goal for steelhead is between five and six fish per pound.
Groppel has been present for the fish releases at Carlisle Lake for many years now. He previously worked with Hoffman at a privately owned fishery, and now he comes to the release as part of his duties with WDFW.
This is his third time being present as a WDFW employee, and he recalls coming out for each release for around five years before that. As he took advantage of a break in the flow of fish into the creek as students switched pens, he remarked that the program really is one of a kind. He added the students are learning to do everything he is there to do — calculating sizes and other stats of the fish being released.
“The kids learn that,” Groppel said. “They can do sample weights. They do length frequencies on the fish. They learn that stuff.”
The release seemed to be a success from Groppel’s point of view, with the fish about the right size for their release.
This year's release also came with plenty of other reasons to celebrate. This year, the state Legislature approved $1.5 million for repairs necessary to the Carlisle Lake dam that Hoffman and other community leaders advocated for at the end of last year. The dam is essential to the lake and serves as the lake's outlet into Gheer Creek.
State Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, helped provide the funding through his work in the Legislature.
“Great visit learning about the Onalaska High School Aquaculture Program — an incredible example of how career and technical education is preparing students with real-world skills right here in Southwest Washington,” Abbarno wrote after the event. “Programs like this give students hands-on experience, open doors to high-demand careers, and strengthen our local economy. That’s why supporting CTE is so important — not just for today’s students, but for the future of our communities. Rep. Ed Orcutt (and I) are proud to support investments in the capital budget, including improvements at Carlisle Lake, to ensure these programs have the facilities and resources they need to succeed. Stronger education means stronger families, stronger communities and a stronger Washington.”
The school hatchery will also launch a summer program this year. Nine students will earn high school science credits while working at the school's hatchery for 270 hours over the summer months and receiving a stipend of $2,700 for their labor. The program includes travel and visits to multiple industry sites.
The program involves partnerships with the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation as well as Tacoma Power, WDFW, the Onalaska Fire Department and others.
A representative for the Pacific Education Institute, another partner group for the program, also came to the fish release event to observe and in part celebrate the program. The associate director of communications for the group, Heidi Smith, praised both the summer program and the ongoing aquaculture classes at the school.
The Onalaska program has gone beyond just the local school district. It inspired a state-approved framework for teaching aquaculture that other districts could adopt in the future. According to Smith, that’s a special achievement.
“Usually these CTE frameworks get developed at the local level and then they’re only applicable at the local level,” Smith said.
After the release, Hoffman gave a brief tour of the fishery to a few interested parties, including state Reps. Abbarno and Orcutt, R-Kalama, Lewis County Commissioner Sean Swope and local members of the Coastal Conservation Association.
