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Video Teaches Students about Fish Hatchery Program by Staff Connections, January 2013

An updated "Project Fins" educational video now is available to classrooms in Idaho Power's service area.

If a fourth-grader you know starts talking about anadromous steelhead and Chinook salmon, he or she may have learned about these amazing fish after watching our new Project Fins video at school.

This 20-minute video, shown in schools across our service area, helps students understand the importance of these fish species to our culture and the changes that have occurred in Northwest rivers during the last century. It also demonstrates the role Idaho Power's four hatcheries play in providing sport, commercial and tribal harvest opportunities while supporting the regions economic prosperity.

The video was shot along the Boise River and at the Company's Pahsimeroi, Rapid River and Niagara Springs hatcheries. Students from Pocatello, staff from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, and Idaho Power employees had roles or assisted in the production.

The new video replaces an older film our community education representatives share with fourth-graders when studying Idaho and Oregon history. The video examines the life cycle of these fish that hatch in freshwater mountain streams, rivers and hatcheries, and then swim out to live and grow in the ocean. After several years the fish return, swimming hundreds of miles upstream to spawn the next generation.

The story of "Project Fins" features a little girl, June Bug, who learns how to tie flies and fly fish for salmon with her grandmother. The stories June's grandmother shares inspire June to go to college. Later she becomes a fish biologist working with Idaho Power, encouraging others to work on behalf of this precious natural resource. To learn more about our community education program, go to www.idahopower.com/edreps.

Related Pages:
The Problem with Hatcheries by Jim Lichatowich & Seth Zuckerman, Salmon Nation, 1999

Related Sites:
Weekly News Brief Idaho Power, 1/14/13
Project Fins, on YouTube, 1/4/13, (360 hits as of 5/8/13)