One teacher’s unconventional lesson plan for his students involved a field trip to a wildlife refuge and a trailer full of invasive fish.
The Lake Cumberland Wildlife Refuge needed food for injured bald eagles, vultures, and hawks, per Louisville Public Media. So, Hank Gevedon, a teacher at Somerset High School in southern Kentucky, showed students how feeding invasive carp to the birds could solve more than one problem.
Gevedon transported 1,000 pounds of carp to a parking lot near the refuge and set up stations for preparation. Dozens of students and volunteers sliced and stored the fish to feed to the wounded birds.
Per Louisville Public Media, many kinds of carp are considered invasive in Kentucky. Carp and other invasive species pose a threat to native wildlife when introduced to an ecosystem. In fact, the National Wildlife Federation reported that about 42% of threatened or endangered species are at risk.
“We’re taking an invasive species, processing it, and feeding it to a possibly endangered species, and that’s just a lot of fun,” Gevedon said.
Kimmi Sparkman, the refuge’s executive director, said the refuge has a strict budget, and feeding carp to injured birds helps lower costs. It benefits the environment in multiple ways as farmers use the remaining parts of the carp for compost. Sparkman called the team effort “phenomenal.”
“It really lifts my heart, lifts my spirit, and encourages me to keep doing what I’m doing,” Sparkman said.
Feeding invasive species to the injured birds protects human health and the economy, too. Invasive species are known to carry and transmit disease. Research found that they also cost the United States billions of dollars per year in resource damage and management.
According to The Nature Conservancy, one of the best ways to fight invasive species is to volunteer, as Gevedon and his students do. Gevedon’s creative approach to teaching was even a hit on the Internet.
“What a clever idea,” one commenter wrote in the r/environment subreddit. “Kudos to Hank and all the volunteers.”
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