Students Help Save Thousands of Endangered Coho Salmon

Students at Casa Grande High School in Petaluma, CA, have rescued some 4,000 endangered Coho Salmon from the state’s drought. The school has an on-campus fish hatchery that students usually use to raise steelhead trout, but last month, when conditions at nearby Lake Sonoma deteriorated, wildlife officials moved some of the state’s last remaining coho into tanks at the school. It’s given students a chance to get hands on experience in conservation.

“These are species that are going to give you an idea as to what the long term impact of our waterways are looking like,” said Dan Hubacker, a science teacher at Casa Grande and also director of the hatchery program. “If you have a species like a coho that is sensitive to environmental change and they’re struggling, that’s ultimately telling you what is happening in your watershed.”

According to Hubacker, the hope is for the salmon to return sometime this fall to the hatchery at Lake Sonoma. Their time at Casa Grande high School is a short-term solution, but with a lot of impact.

“I would argue this serves two purposes,” Hubacker said. “One, we are able to help out with the fish, but it also allows long term, looking at these young adults being able to step in, it gives them hope for the future, too.”

The students all agree. Kate Carlson, a senior at Casa Grande High School, says many of them now hope to continue conservation work in their future. “Seeing we can really make a difference, it’s amazing,” Kate said. “It’s going to stay with us for the rest of our lives.