Land-based learning program students help stock Thunder Bay-area lake with fish
Lisa-Marie Esquega
Students of a land-based alternative secondary school program in Thunder Bay have helped the Min‐ istry of Natural Resources and Forestry's Ontario's Fish Culture Program stock one of the lakes just out‐ side the city.
Students started their day on May 15 at Hammarskjold High School, one of two schools that offer the Kendo‐ mang Zhagodenamnon Lodge or KZ Lodge program, and boarded a bus for a land-based education adven‐ ture 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, Métis and Inuit partnerships coordinator with the Lake‐ head District School Board.
Moses started the Wednesday outing by giving a teaching on water, then shared a song and acknowl‐ edged the land with an offer‐ ing of kinnikinnick, or natu‐ rally-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 out fresh ban‐ nock for everyone to enjoy.
Finally, Ben Wood from the Dorion Fish Culture Sta‐ tion began filling up buckets of fish from the water tank built onto the fish hatchery's truck and passing the buck‐ ets to students.
The students then, one by one, carried the buckets down a foot path to the lake, where Marek Klich of the On‐ tario Ministry of Natural Re‐ sources and Forestry helped them release the hatchlings into the water.
The students ended their day with a quiz game, shouting out their answers in order to win prize prizes.
The KZ lodge program aims to give students memo‐ rable and meaningful landbased 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 an‐ gling 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."