Photos: Mahtomedi students release trout and identify bugs

By - MNTU Communications Director on May 11, 2026

On a rainy day in April, fifth graders from Mahtomedia piled out of their chaperones’ vehicles at Brown’s Creek Park in Stillwater to release the rainbow trout fingerlings they had raised in a classroom tank over the school year. 

St. Jude of the Lake Catholic School in Mahtomedia has participated in Minnesota Trout Unlimited’s Trout in the Classroom program for over 10 years. This year’s fifth graders raised trout from eggs to fingerlings before releasing them into Brown’s Creek, a designated trout stream that the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources stocks annually with rainbow trout.

With help from volunteers Marie Culhane, Dan Culhane and Sally Noll, MNTU education supervisor Amber Taylor led the release event followed by an activity in which students got in the water to look for the aquatic bugs that feed the stream’s ecosystem.

Geared up in rain jackets and waiters, MNTU education supervisor Amber Taylor and volunteer Marie Culhane quickly net up a cup of fingerlings for each student to release into Brown’s Creek.
A St. Jude of the Lake Catholic School fifth grader poses with a cup of rainbow trout fingerlings prior to pouring them into Brown’s Creek.
MNTU education supervisor Amber Taylor highlights the fingerlings’ parr marks and discusses the habitat benefits of Brown’s Creek, including its water quality, food availability and hiding spots.
Field kits with nets and macroinvertebrate identification keys await the students while they gear up to look for bugs.
Fifth graders use a kick net to stir up macroinvertebrates in Brown’s Creek.
A parent chaperone guides a student through the macroinvertebrate identification process.
Volunteer Marie Culhane helps students identify the bugs they stirred up in their kick net.
A St. Jude of the Lake Catholic School fifth grader poses with an ice tray holding the macroinvertebrates he found.
Students use ice trays to isolate and identify the macroinvertebrates they find.
MNTU education supervisor Amber Taylor shows students a caddis fly larvae hiding in its carefully crafted camouflage structure.
Fifth graders pour over the collection of bugs they found before packing up.

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