Schools from the Crawford County area enjoyed a beautiful day out in nature at the Sugar Creek
Bible Camp located near Ferryville, Wisconsin. Over 200 students in grades 5th, 6th and 7th
participated in a series of outdoor education activities for the Youth Conservation Day. The Genoa
National Fish Hatchery participated by setting up a station for students. While visiting the GNHF
station students got the opportunity to learn about the importance of fish conservation, fish
identification, lifecycle of a freshwater mussel, and were given the opportunity to handle a live lake
sturgeon. At other stations the students got to observe an electrofishing demonstration, collect
aquatic invertebrates to learn about water quality, and about birds of prey. I truly believe these
hands-on outdoor education activities are very important for students and provide an excellent
platform to introduce them to careers in the natural resource fields. Judging by the students smiles, I
would say that they truly enjoyed the Youth Conservation Day! By: Erica Rasmussen

A student’s hand touching a lake sturgeon. Photo Credit: volunteer