(Lewis) Elementary students in Cass County got an opportunity to learn about the outdoors last week.
Kids from Griswold and Atlantic were at Cold Springs Park in Lewis on Thursday. Fisheries Biologist Bryan Hayes was one of several DNR personnel on hand. “These outdoor classrooms are really valuable to the kids. It gets them outdoors and gets them exposed to a lot of different things that maybe they weren’t aware were available to them in the natural resources.”
Six stations were set up and Hayes manned the Fish ID section. “I talked to the kids about how it is important to be able to identify what you are catching. We all want to catch fish, but to take it a step further let’s ID what we are catching. Not only will that determine if it is a fish you want to take home to eat, is it a fish that has spine, and if there are laws or rules about the harvest of that fish.”
Students also got to fish, net aquatic bugs, learn about forestry, see a swan that will be released into the wild as part of a restoration program, and learn about streams.