Land-based learning program students help stock Thunder Bay-area lake with fish

Students of a land-based alternative secondary school program in Thunder Bay have helped the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry'sOntario's Fish Culture Programstock one of the lakes just outside the city.

Students started their day on May 15 at Hammarskjold High School,one oftwo schools that offer the Kendomang Zhagodenamnon Lodge or KZ Lodge program, and boarded abus for a land-based education adventure at Chubb Lake.

"It's always humbling to be asked to come out and open this type of program in a good way,"said Tanya Moses, the First Nations, Mtis and Inuit partnerships coordinator with the Lakehead District School Board.

Moses started the Wednesday outing by givinga teaching on water,then shared a song andacknowledged the land with an offering of kinnikinnick, ornaturally-made tobacco.

"We got everybody to make an offering because it's about respecting the land, acknowledging it, not taking it for granted and showing it that respect that it deserves," Moses said.

Next, students took part in frying fish on the shore and putting outfresh bannock for everyone to enjoy.

Finally, Ben Wood from the Dorion Fish Culture Station began filling up buckets of fish from the water tank built onto the fish hatchery's truckand passing the buckets to students.

The students then, one by one, carried the buckets down a foot path to the lake, where Marek Klichof the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestryhelpedthem release thehatchlings into the water.

The studentsended their day with a quiz game, shouting out their answers in order to win prize prizes.

The KZ lodge program aims to give students memorableand meaningful land-based learning experiences that encompass Indigenous perspectives, values and practices.

The ministry has been stocking popular spots since the early 1950s with fish that are well suited to the area, according to its website.

Today, it operates nine fish culture stations, or hatcheries, across the province, where it raises 12 popular sport fish, including walleye, salmon, trout and muskie.

"We stock lakes all over the province both to boost recreational and natural angling opportunities."Wood said. "So that includes the brook trout and the lake trout as well as the hybrids. ... We also stock brown trout and rainbow trout."