About 1,800 students from 70 different classes in 20 different schools in the Columbia Basin participated in the Kokanee Salmon School Program this year. The program aims to teach youth about the importance of the kokanee salmon, a natural resource in our own backyards.
This year the program included a puppet show loosely based on a Star Wars theme, ‘Stream Wars - the Return of the Red Rebel Alliance’ about predator-prey relationships, a guided walk along the spawning channel, a dissection of a spawned-out kokanee, and an activity based on the salmon as a keystone species and healthy waterways.
Intrepid park interpreters/educators included Genna Lintz, Joanne Siderius and Nancie Dohan.
The Kokanee Salmon School Program is made possible with funding from Columbia Basin Trust. A huge ‘thank you’ also goes to the Nelson Police Department Derby, the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 51, and especially to the Friends and Family in Memory of Russ Grainger, a long time supporter of the derby who tragically passed away this year in a boating accident.