No, this isn’t some horror film title; though it is that season. Instead, it’s an incredible opportunity for learning and career planning in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.
Bennett Colvin, a teacher in Steamboat for over a decade, has been taking his Steamboat Springs High School students to Butcherknife Creek adjacent to the school for several years. Here they study the restored creek to better understand river science, spending many hours learning about the local ecosystem through hands-on experience.
Colvin grew up in a TU-focused family. He jokingly mentioned that he’s been going to TU meetings since he was four, but given his enthusiasm for this project as well as spreading that love to his students, I believed every word of it. He now attends regularly meetings of the Yampa Valley Fly Fishers (YVFF), with his kids in tow, as the youth education coordinator.
It’s with that mindset that Colvin brings his students to the creek each week. They implement math and science skills to better understand and track habitat improvements. He instills in his students a love for nature, a desire to improve habitats and a curiosity about fish that exudes future TU supporters.
Flywater, inc., a river consulting and construction firm from nearby Ft. Collins, turned this irrigation ditch into a creek with pools, runs, drops, eddies and other hallmarks of good trout habitat through the placement of boulders, smaller rocks and log structures. They improved access and allowed Colvin’s classroom to expand and flourish.
Seeing the changes affect the creek nearly immediately, the students rejoice in their new outdoor classroom. They often see fish swimming, they find sculpins and they hunt for macroinvertebrates, which show steadily increasing populations.
Since this creek has been used for some time with middle and high school students, Colvin is seeing many of them turn to careers in fisheries. His motto; “If they aren’t exposed to it, they don’t know these careers exist.” Igniting a passion in students is par for the course for teachers but seeing them follow through is a dream come true for Colvin.
A project of YVFF with funding support from Yampa Valley Charitable Trust, Butcherknife Creek has sprung back to life. A thoroughfare for wildlife, the creek now regularly holds decent sized browns and brookies, and you’ll see the occasional spawners as well. Watch the video below for more on the project.