The History
How It All Began
The idea for creating an endangered fish hatchery at Palisade High School came from Mike Gross, the Biological Science Technician and Educational Outreach manager at the Ouray National Fish Hatchery - Grand Valley Unit. This idea sparked excitement in Patrick Steele, a science teacher at Palisade High School and PHS Fish Hatchery supervisor, who has always had a passion for fish. This idea soon evolved into a plan when PHS agreed to put build the Hatchery. It took 3 years to get the hatchery running and took multiple PHS student's help from selling peaches, putting together the fish tanks, baking cakes for fundraisers, writing grants, and so much more. All of this hard work finally paid off in the summer of 2020 when we got our first 40 fish, with the count now being up to 230.
Students visiting the Ouray National Fish Hatchery - Grand Valley Unit
Class of 2018 students visiting the Ouray National Fish Hatchery - Grand Valley Unit, in preparation to break ground on the PHS Hatchery.
Breaking the Ground
Patrick Steele with the class of 2018 students speaking to the community about the unveiling of the soon-to-be PHS Fish Hatchery.
The Trip
In 2019, four students visited the Casa Grande High School fish hatchery in Petaluma California, to understand how another school runs a fully functioning fish hatchery that grows approximately 20,000 fish per year - the same as the Ouray National Fish Hatchery Grand Valley Unit. From this trip, the students learned about the daily activities in association with working the hatchery, as well as how the community is involved in this type of project. After the trip had come to an end, the students were ecstatic to begin working to make the hatchery in full production.
Students talking to Dan Hubacker about the operation of the Casa Grande High School facility.
Once A Shed...
The hatchery was built into a building that was originally a shed in the back of Palisade High School. At the time it was storage of telescopes for the astronomy classes, yet it was decided that the hatchery could be built inside the preexisting building to save costs. The astronomy telescopes are still stored in the same building to this day, but in a different section that does not interfere with the hatchery operations.
Now The Inside
Beginning in the summer of 2019 and into the fall, the hatchery leadership team that had previously traveled to visit Casa Grande High School was now working on building their own hatchery. For this to occur, the entire inside of the preexisting building needed to be insulated so that the temperature could be regulated once the fish were present. Additionally, all the pipes, filtration systems, and tanks needed to be placed in a functioning order with the allocated space. Luckily, all the US Fish and Wildlife Service provided and continues to provide the hatchery fish tanks, the filtration system, the fish, fish feed and feeding systems, and any other components that are needed for the tank system. Due to COVID, the building took a halt from March to May, but luckily the system was operating by the middle of July of 2020, ready for the first 40 fish to inoculate the water in preparation for more fish to be added to the newly running hatchery.
The Most Recent addition
Once the hatchery was up and running, the next priority was put into action; a way to store the equipment. A shed was built next to the hatchery building around the same time as the hatchery was being put together internally in order for the equipment used on an annual basis could be stored. Within this shed, tanks of water are filled to the brim in the event of an emergency or for water change-outs, which keeps the water of the hatchery as clear as possible, as well as to reduced ammonia levels from the waste that the filters are not able to grab.