Trout in the Classroom
A brown trout parr reared at Waterside School - image courtesy of the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project
An exciting environmental project for Chesham started at Waterside in 2009 and has now successfully completed its second year. The town’s Impress the Chess partnership and the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project have brought trout back to the town through an educational project based at Waterside County Combined School.
The “Trout in the Classroom” project involves the installation of a specially designed aquarium at the school to recreate the conditions fish would experience in the River Chess. During the winter trout-breeding season, fertile trout eggs were put into the tank and left to the care of the Waterside pupils.
Under teacher supervision, the children oversaw the hatching, nurturing, feeding and progress of the young fish. Not only did this give the students the chance to learn about the River Chess and the trout life cycle, but it also helped to inspire an interest in caring for the local environment.
The second year of the project at Waterside was successfully completed in March 2010 when the young trout were released at Canon's Mill. In 2009 the pupils released their first batch of trout into the recently restored stretch of the Chess in Meades Water Gardens. Both releases were organised by Allen Beechey, Chilterns Chalk Streams Project Officer, who brought Trout in the Classroom to Chesham. The project attracted national interest and the first fish release was filmed for the BBC One programme Countryfile, with presenter Julia Bradbury wading into the channel to help see the fish on their way.
The filming of the trout release at Meades Water Gardens in June 2009
The project has been so successful that Waterside County Combined School are now planning a site visit to the Chess to learn more about their local river. It is hoped that the project can be continued and extended to other schools in the area over the coming years. Not only has the project brought educational benefits to local children, but it also means that there are brown trout in the upper reaches of the Chess for the first time since the river dried out in the 2006 drought. One of the long-term goals of Impress the Chess is to remove obstructions to fish movement along the Chess so that fish can naturally recolonise stretches of the river after periods of drought.
The Trout in the Classroom project was instigated by the Chilterns Chalk Streams Project, with financial assistance from Impress the Chess.