Something fishy has been going on in the third grade classrooms at Charles Wright Academy. 

Teachers Jon Flies and Deanne Trummert are teaching their students about the geography and habitat of the Nisqually watershed which reaches from the Nisqually Glacier on Mount Rainier to Puget Sound.  After field trips to Mount Rainier and the University of Washington’s Center for Sustainable Forestry at Pack Forest, the students recently completed their favorite community service project of the year: the salmon toss.

“Call us crazy, we pick up huge frozen salmon carcasses and toss them into the Nisqually River and several tributaries,” explains Trummert.  “These are salmon that returned to the hatchery. The eggs and milt were harvested and the carcasses were frozen.  We toss these carcasses into the upper watershed where they would have naturally died after spawning. This returns essential nutrients back to the watershed and provides food for animals in the area.”

Through this project, students study the interdependence of volcanoes, glaciers, rivers, estuaries, dams, forests, salmon, birds, and the Sound.  They learn that salmon are integral to the life cycle and nutrient cycle of the watershed.  Charles Wright faculty members work with the Nisqually Stream Stewards on the project.