Healdsburg, CA April 5th, 2007: On April 5th students from Healdsburg Elementary school will release baby Steelhead trout, or Fry, into the recently restored Wine Creek in Healdsburg’s beautiful Dry Creek Valley. This is a culmination of Michel-Schlumberger Wine Estate’s creek restoration project and California Fish and Game’s and Trout Unlimited’s “Steelheads in the Classroom” project. Both are examples of a communities focus on preservation and restoration.

Michel-Schlumberger’s winemaker, Mike Brunson, drove the initiative for restoration of the creek in 2006. With the help of Trout Unlimited, California Department of Fish and Game, California Conservation Corp. and NOAA, Wine Creek is now one of only 3 waterways in the Russian River watershed where Coho Salmon and Steelhead trout spawn. Only months after the restoration project was completed steelhead trout began returning to their historical natal spawning ground.

Meanwhile, Kent MacIntosh, President of the Redwood Empire Chapter of Trout Unlimited was driving a different initiative with a complimentary purpose. “Steelhead in the Classroom” is designed as an interactive science lesson with a bit of a moral subtext. By incubating the eggs, (roe) taken from Winter Steelhead that have migrated up Drycreek to Lake Sonoma’s Don Clausen Fish Hatchery and learning about Steelhead trout the students receive a very intimate type of science lesson. This lesson also opens the door for learning about preservation and conservation of our natural resources and an individuals relationship to the natural world.

The students released the "Fry" on Thursday morning into a now thriving natural habitat for Steelhead.   Everyone from the winery and went along to watch!