WASHINGTON COUNTY, Ore. — With most Oregon schools calling it a year and heading into summer break, here’s a fine end-of-the-year story with a lesson that lasts for years. It’s called "Eggs to Fry" and finds thousands of Oregon school children lending a hand each year to raise rainbow trout, sometimes in unique fashion.
There's so much water running under the covered bridges of Linn County that it’s no surprise you'll cross paths with some real whoppers at the Roaring River Trout Hatchery , where rainbow trout tip the scales at 15 pounds apiece and outdoor education is easy to find. The hatchery, operated by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Department, is one of several facilities that raise more than a million catchable trout for stocking at 96 lakes and ponds across northwest Oregon. In fact, Roaring River Hatchery’s super-large rainbow trout produce so many trout eggs that something special happens to the surplus eggs: they go to school! “While visitors are on site, it’s an ideal place to educate them about trout,” said ODFW employee Tim Schamber.
”Not only about what goes on at the hatchery, but about other parts of our resources. So, we try to put as much energy as possible toward that type of education.” And the education continues in many Oregon classrooms! It's the kind of education that retired teacher, Leroy Schultz, says we need more of.
Schultz insists there’s no rocking chair for him in retirement after 35 years as a classroom teacher. These day.
