Nature School’s Trips to a Hatchery and a Wildlife Management Area

steamschooldelapla
May 14
2 min read

Conservation of land in Virginia is largely supported by sport hunting and fishing. We visited 2 locations operated by the Department Virginia Wildlife Resources who primary role is to make sure there are places and wildlife to hunt and fish.

First, we visited the G Richard Thompson Wildlife Area to view the spectacular stand of Large- Flowered Trillium. This 4,000 acres of land is preserved for the use of hunting and fishing. The Appalachia Trail also cuts through the property.

The unique soil type and lack of disturbance make this a special spot for the trillium to thrive. We enjoyed a nice walk including a part along the A.T. We heard many birds including a barred owl! We saw many other plants too, like May Apples, Yellow Lady-Slippers and lots of Squaw Root.

The following week we visited the Fish Cultural Station outside of Front Royal. It was fascinating to learn about the entire process of raising fish and the reasons they do it.

Our visit coincided with a flooding event, so the lesson was very evident. During the spring, fish are laying eggs and guarding their nests. When flooding happens, their eggs are washed away, critically affecting the population.

We were greeted by a group of turkeys and Caleb, the assistant manager of the facility, took us on a tour of the hatchery, where we visited many ponds and met the conservation biologist at the site as well as other staff. They breed and raise small mouth bass, walleye, large mouth bass. They have a combination of lined ponds and unlined ponds. We started with how they collect water from the creek and filter it in huge drums. We saw where the walleyes nested in gravel beds and how they gather them and move them to a different pond. As we walked around the many ponds we spotted many killdeer birds that were nesting in the gravel paths around the ponds.