Students release salmon into East Grand, North lakes

By Michael Saunders
    The peace and solitude of rural Maine was shattered when two busloads of school students from grades 4, 5 and 6 descended on an area near the U.S. Customs building on the Boundary Road in Orient. The students and teachers from Hodgdon and Houlton were on a mission to release salmon fry into the thoroughfare joining East Grand and North lakes. The students were participating in a program sponsored by the Chiputneticook Lakes International Conservancy, Inc., known by the acronym CLIC.
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UP CLOSE — Well-known fly tyer Tom Boulier demonstrates the fine art of fly tying to grades 3 and 6 Houlton school students.
    In the Atlantic salmon raise and release school fish tank program with CLIC, the schools are provided with a special aquarium equipped with a water chiller to maintain constant temperature. In their classrooms the students raise the salmon from eggs to the fry stage and then go on a school outing to individually release the salmon into East Grand Lake. Each student was given some of the fry in a small plastic cup and the student gently released the salmon into the water. The school fish tank program by CLIC has seven tanks in three U.S. schools in the area, Houlton, Danforth and Hodgdon, and supports a fish tank in Canterbury, NB.
HELPING HAND — Elizabeth Desrosier and Amelia Ivey of Hodgdon Mill Pond School give a helping hand when they release a bucket of larger one- year-old salmon into East Grand Lake.
    Also on hand were employees of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife from Enfield. One-year-old salmon were transferred from a hatchery in a special truck equipped with aerated tanks for live transport and were released into Grand Lake. The system used by the department to transfer live fish was explained to the students. The students participated in the release of these larger Atlantic salmon by carrying the fish in five-gallon pails to be released into the lake. The students also witnessed the transfer of the salmon into containers on two boats to be transported and released in other locations on East Grand Lake.
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COFFEE TALK — Students sampling coffee boiled over an open fire by registered Maine guide Randy Patoine. the coffee was handed out by Patty Bubar, office manager for the Woody Wheaton Land Trust.
    The students were treated to a lunch of hot dogs, chips, cookies and soft drinks prepared by members of CLIC. Other opportunities for the students included a demonstration of fly tying by Bob Upham of Grand Lake Stream and outdoor cooking over a wood fire by registered Maine guide John Gaskins. Upham told the students he had been a lifelong outdoor enthusiast and sportsman and began tying flies when he was only 11 years old. Gaskin demonstrated how potatoes and onions were boiled over an open fire and how coffee was boiled in the wild by Maine guides with the addition of eggs, eggshells and all, into the coffee grounds before boiling. The students were also taken on a tour of the U.S. Customs building in Orient.
    CLIC board member and former school principal, Donald (Bones) Ellis, gave each student a ticket and held a draw awarding prizes donated by CLIC to the lucky winners.
TAKING A LOOK — Devon Ivey, Tristin Jacklin, Emma Brown and Lindsay Russell, students of Hodgdon Mill Pond School examine a salmon fry before releasing it into Grand Lake.
    Teacher Sara McQuarrie, who teaches grades 6-8 in Hodgdon, said, “the students enjoyed growing the salmon fry in their classrooms. They liked watching them hatch. We were worried because for a long time the salmon didn’t hatch, but then they did and we were all very happy about that. The students learned about their life cycle, the different fins that they have and their different habits in the water. It was a wonderful learning experience for all the students.”
    CLIC was formed in 1992 by camp owners at East Grand Lake to form an association to protect the natural environment, water quality and to improve the fishing in the Chiputneticook chain of lakes that now include North, East Grand, Spednic, Mud, Palfrey, Brackett and Deering. CLIC has been involved in the stocking of about six million smelts into East Grand and North lakes in the last three years to improve the habitat and food chain for game fish including Atlantic salmon, trout, togue, bass, pickerel and white and yellow perch. Some longtime fishers on the lakes have reported improved sport fishing on the lakes with catches resembling those of 30 years ago. LITTLE CHEF — Matthew Crane, a fourth-grader at Hodgdon Mill Pond School, cooks hotdogs and filled in as a student cook with the demonstration of cooking over an outdoor fire by registered Maine guide John Gaskins.