CASPER, Wyo. — Green River middle and high school students are adopting 40 brown trout under Trout Unlimited’s “Adopt-A-Trout” program to learn about fish and track their movement over the next 16 months.
Trout Unlimited and the Wyoming Game and Fish Department started catching the brown trout and implanting tags to allow them to be tracked during the week of April 18, Game and Fish said in a news release on Tuesday.
“The students will get to name each fish and to follow the fish through its life cycle in the Green River,” Nick Walrath, Trout Unlimited Green River project manager, said. “Additionally, students will learn about fish anatomy, life cycles, water quality and river ecology. The program gives the kids real ownership in their local river.”
Anglers who catch any tagged trout are asked to release them back into the water to allow the tracking under the Adopt-A-Trout program to continue.
“If you harvest a tagged trout, please return the tag to Trout Unlimited or to the Green River Regional Game and Fish office,” Jessica Lockwood, Green River fisheries biologist with Game and Fish, said.
The brown trout being tagged for the program are being caught in the Green River between the Fontenelle Dam and the city of Green River. The tags they are being fit with allow the fish to be tracked by radio telemetry. In addition to allowing students to learn more about the fish, the monitoring could help determine if there are habitat improvements that would be beneficial to trout, according to Game and Fish.
Trout Unlimited’s Adopt-A-Trout program “pairs a research need from fisheries managers with local students” and has been operating in the state for over a decade, according to Game and Fish.
