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Children In Nature April 7th, 2010 kicked off the Children In Nature Project for Pendills Creek NFH. The 6 th grade class at

Brimley Elementary School was selected to take part in the project. A lesson plan was designed by Fish

Biologist Jaime Masterson to take 35 students outside and teach them about six different subjects in nature

including geology, ichthyology, entomology, dendrology, botany and meteorology. Guest experts from

Lake Superior State University (LSSU), US Forest Service and an independent Geologist are volunteering

their time to come and help out with the various subjects within their disciplines.

Geology was the first class, held at the Iroquois Lighthouse, where local Geologist Julia Shubel

educated the kids about types of rocks and how to identify rocks and minerals. Students were given

identification tables, three observation sheets and pocket magnifying glasses. The children were then

let loose on the rocky shoreline to search out and discover different types of rocks. Mrs. Shubel also

brought along a rock hammer and an acid kit to help identify different rocks and minerals. After the

groups had identified three rocks, the class congregated back together so that they could go over

with the entire class what they had found.

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April 13th the students learned about Ichthyology at Pendills Creek NFH. Roger Greil of Lake SuperiorState University's Aquatic Research Lab in Sault Ste. Marie, MI came out to volunteer his time to take

the children electrofishing in Pendills Creek. After collecting samples the fish were anesthetized andidentified. Specimens collected included brook trout, slimy sculpin and steelhead trout. One groupeven managed to land a 12 inch steelhead................great catch!!! The children were then given a tourand overview of why we grow lake trout at Pendills Creek NFH by hatchery manager Curt Friez. Lastly the children were taught how to do feed calculations, asked to calculate actual feed rates fordifferent raceways and were then allowed to feed those raceways. At the end of the day the children

were given Pocket Freshwater Fish Ident-I-Cards to help them continue to identify any fish speciesthey come across.

Stay tuned for the next three classes on Entomology, Dendrology, Botany & Meteorology that will take place in May and June.

Photo by: Shar Myers, Bay Mills News

Photo by: Shar Myers, Bay Mills News

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FISH PRODUCTION

Fish HealthLa Crosse Fish Health Center came to

Pendills and Sullivan Creek NFHs onMarch 3 rd and 4 th to perform their semi-annual fish heath inspections.

Distribution StartsStocking season got off to an early start on April 7 th for Jordan River NFH, PendillsCreek NFH and Iron River NFH. Almost2.4 million fish will have been stocked into

Lake Huron and Lake Michigan by the endof April, with another 1.6 million to bestocked in May.

Fish being loaded onto the Spencer F. Baird

GoedeLa Crosse Fish Health Center came back toPendills Creek NFH on April 14 th toperform their pre-stocking goedeinspection, which a quality assessmentto ensure that the fish can survive in the wild.

MEETINGS & TRAINING

Hatchery Manager Curt Friez and AssistantManager Crystal LeGault-Anderson

traveled to Jordan River NFH to attend theFish Team Meeting on March 23 rd.

Hatchery manager Curt Friez traveled to Washington D.C. to attend the annualNational Friends Group Meeting from April19th to April 23 rd .

OUTREACH

New BlogRecently the Fish and Wildlife Service hasstarted allowing the use of social mediasuch as Blogspot, Facebook and YouTube

Pendills new blog home page

as a way of getting our message out to themass populous. Pendills/Sullivan CreekNational Fish Hatcheries Fish Biologist Jaime Masterson created a blog that can be

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accessed at

http://pendillscreeknfh.blogspot.com/ .

As the hatchery does not yet have an

official website, the new blog (unofficial

website) will help better inform the public

of what we do here. It will also keep people

up to date on what's new at the hatchery,

which will be important as they have

several major construction projects in the

near future. These projects include a new

raceway building and early rearing station

that will be constructed over the next few years. Blogging will also allow Pendills to

post up and coming events such as the

Annual Children's Fishing Event and

Children In Nature Projects. Not only can

the blog be used to keep people current on

what Pendills is up to, links will be added to

the Fish and Wildlife Service and to the

Friends of Pendills page.

OTHER NEWSPredators Take A Hit

Since the snow melted in early March the

predators have been swarming to Pendills

Creek NFH and to our uncovered and

unprotected raceways. Live traps were setand so far three raccoons have been

caught and relocated. Yet perhaps the most

weird is the muskrats?? Though they may not

have been searching for food, two unfortunate

muskrats have met there end at the hand of

our water intake. First one was found stuck

to the intake screen and then about a week

later another poor soul was found hanging

out of the water valve in the head box of one

of the raceways. How he got there remains a

mystery!!