Environmental Biology Class Gets a Wall-eye View of the Mille Lacs DNR Hatchery

Science without politics

By VIVIAN LaMOORE, INAAJIMOWIN EDITOR

Becoming a biologist may not exactly be on everyone’s wish list. But one group of students from Central Lakes College in Brainerd was given the opportunity to take a behind-the-scenes tour and an up-close look into the biology of the Mille Lacs Band Fisheries department.

The Environmental Biology class led by Robb Kolodziej offers students an introductory basic look into science. A lot of the students enrolled in his class are simply undecided of their major or are just checking a box towards their degree, Kolodziej said. The class is a wide-variety combination of students, including some non-traditional, first year AA or AAS students, Postsecondary Enrollment Option (PSEO), and students who are truly undecided. His class focuses on science without pressures of politics and exposes students to a variety of experiences and careers that could go along with a major in Environmental Studies, such as touring a wastewater treatment center, a water testing facility, and the fisheries department of the Mille Lacs Band DNR.

Giving students the opportunity to learn how to focus on the science behind many issues helps be informed citizens and recognize there are many different views and opinions about many different hot topic issues. “We keep it focused on what we know through science/biology and look strictly at the data,” Kolodziej said.

Before the class attended the tour of the fisheries department, Kolodzieji assigned the students to do a research paper and instructed them to analyze the DNR historical data of the fish population of Mille Lacs Lake. They looked at all of the data as scientists would, drawing hypotheses and conclusions, using fish harvest numbers only. He said in looking at the numbers of fish harvested by non-tribal anglers verses tribal harvesting there is no comparison of the number of fish harvested. “The kids really get that. They focused on the science,” Koldieji said.

The tour was led by Carl Klimah with Keith Wiggins, Harvey Goodsky Jr., and Jalyn LaBine of the fisheries department. Klimah guided the students through the hatchery, explaining how the eggs and milt are collected from tribally harvested fish and put into the hatchery. Because each and every fish of every species that is tribally harvested is counted, measured, and sexed, the milt and eggs are also collected at the time of harvest. The eggs and milt are then mixed in a bowl immediately and placed into the jars at the hatchery, where they are incubated, hatched into fry, and released into the hatching ponds on the Reservation, where they will grow into fingerlings which are then released into area lakes within the 1855 treaty territory, as well as the 1837. The Mille Lacs Band DNR also provides fry and fingerlings to the Minnesota DNR to supplement their stocking programs.

Because of the late ice out and brief harvest season this year, the hatchery is also behind in progress. As of this writing, there were approximately 4,510,000 eggs in the incubation stage. Klimah says they have an average success rate of 70% and are expecting to produce 3,157,000 fry this year. The fry will be released into the Band’s holding ponds until they reach fingerling stage, when they will be released into area lakes within the Mille Lacs Reservation area, including lakes such as Shakopee Lake. Shakopee Lake, and many shallow lakes like it, experienced a severe kill rate over the winter due to drought conditions leading to low water levels, resulting in freeze out. Many of these fry/fingerlings will help the process of re-stocking many of those lakes.

Klimah explained how the hatchery has been created and built from the ground up with unprecedented creative designs and what each piece is designed to do. He also gave an overview of many of the plants and forage found all around in nature and some of the edible, medicinal, and cultural aspects of nature.

After the tour of the fisheries, Kolodiej said in quick conversations with the students who attended that many were interested in the biology pieces of the walleye hatchery but what really caught their attention, he said, was the cultural pieces and learning about the medicinal and edible components of many of the plants found in the woods.

Many of the students have grown up in the Brainerd Lakes Area (BLA) and have a firm grasp on the issues of Mille Lacs Lake. What is interesting, Kolodiej said, is that the students recognize the part that science plays in the management of the lake, and leave politics out of the picture.