Put on your trout fins and try to survive Alberta’s shrinking trout habitat.

PURPOSE

Discover what it feels like to be a trout in an ever-shrinking habitat. Brainstorm ways to protect trout habitat and keep it cold, clean, complex, clear, and connected.

GRADE LEVELS

Grades K-12

TIME NEEDED

15-20 minutes

Curriculum CONNECTIONS

Earth Systems (K, Grades 1-6)

Living Systems (Grade 1-3)
Matter (Grade 3)

Interactions & Ecosystems (Grade 7)

Unit E: Fresh Water and Salt Water Ecosystems (Grade 8)

Biological Diversity (Grade 9)

Sci 10: Energy Glow in Global Systems (Grade 10)

Bio 20: Ecosystems & Population Change (Grade 11)
Bio 30: Population and Community Dynamics (Grade 12)

MATERIALS NEEDED

AV equipment to show a short video
Tarp, blanket, or rope

Instructions

Discuss how habitat loss and climate change are two of the main reasons that species are at risk of extinction (the dual biodiversity-climate crisis).
Have participants give examples of why this might be (e.g. competition, unsuitable climate in traditional range, hot/less oxygenated water, extreme weather events, can’t find food, water, shelter, space, etc.).
Watch this video to explore specific examples of this happening to Alberta native trout: Threats to Alberta's Native Trout.
Lay out a tarp (or blanket or rope). This is the lake or river. If using a “river”, demonstrate the flow of the river (e.g. the Bow River) from the headwaters (e.g. Bow Glacier) downstream (e.g. to Calgary).
All participants stand on the tarp. They are trout.
As a group, list threats to trout habitat. Relate threats back to specific curriculum, such as climate impacts. For each threat listed, fold the tarp in half.
The group needs to fold the tarp in half as many times as possible without anyone falling off the tarp.
If someone falls of the tarp, they have died. Discuss the significance: Trout need a certain amount of space to survive. They can adapt to a certain point, but there is also a point where the ecosystem cannot survive.
At the end, see how many trout were able to survive and how small they were able to fold the tarp. Discuss how the loss of cold, clean, clear, complex, and connected habitat is impacting trout. How is climate change contributing to habitat loss?
When the tarp is small, ask the participants who have fallen off how we may be able to save and/or restore trout habitat. For each example, you can unfold the tarp and the participant who suggested the idea can return onto the tarp. Repeat until the tarp is unfolded and everyone is back on.

Discussion:

Discuss how we can keep the habitat/tarp large enough to support all the native trout species (parks, protected areas, climate action, education, responsible recreation, responsible industry, removal of barriers (hanging culverts at road crossings, dams), etc.).

Discuss why preventing habitat loss is the best option, opposed to having to restore habitat. Did the habitat/tarp look the same when unfolded again?

Extensions:

Discover ways that anglers, ranchers, off highway vehicle (OHV) users, hikers, and campers can support native trout recovery through our interactive tool Stand Up For Alberta's Native Trout. Dive in deeper with Stories from the River.

Learn about the Alberta Native Trout Collaborative's efforts to rehabilitate native trout habit with this StoryMap: Rehabilitating Native Trout Habitat in Alberta.

Detailed Curriculum Connection

Earth Systems
- Discuss how the various components of Earth (land, water, air, plants, humans, and other animals) interact to support life.
- Identify bodies of water on Earth that contain fresh water.

Living Systems
- Discuss ways to respect plants and animals while interacting in various environments.
- Explain positive and negative impacts of human behaviour on plants and animals.
- Represent the life cycles of various plants and animals.
- Discuss and compare life cycles of various plants and animals.
- First Nations, Métis, and Inuit relate to land, plants, and animals as equals. Discuss how humans might interact with land, plants, and animals if they see land, plants, and animals as equals.
- Identify ways in which people show care for land, plants, and animals through cultural practices.

Matter
- Discuss ways to respect water in local environments.
Earth Systems
- Discuss changes to Earth’s surface over time that are shared through stories and intergenerational knowledge of First Nations, Métis, or Inuit.
- Represent how the movement of water and wind changes Earth’s surface over time.
- Represent the flow of water from glaciers to an ocean.
- Investigate glacier-fed rivers that are found locally or in Alberta.
- Discuss the interconnectedness between human activities and responsibilities for maintaining Earth.
Living Systems
- Reflect on and share actions that can be taken to protect plants and animals in local environments.
- Discuss First Nations, Métis, and Inuit connection with environments and their knowledge of and relationships with plants and animals.

Earth Systems:
- Make connections between human activity and Earth’s systems.
- Analyze the interconnectedness of Earth’s systems (lithosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere).
- Discuss ways that plants and animals use water to meet their basic needs.
- Identify plants and animals that exist in various bodies of water.
- Demonstrate respect for water in the local environment.
- Discuss the importance of water to First Nations, Métis, and Inuit.
- Investigate conservation practices in natural and human-made areas.
- Discuss the interconnectedness between human use of parks and conservation practices.
- Describe examples of personal actions that contribute to conservation in daily life.

Earth Systems:
- Relate impacts of natural processes and human activities on climate change.
- Discuss how scientists, Elders, and traditional Knowledge Keepers can collaborate to develop deeper awareness of the effects of weather on people and environments.
- Describe possible effects of climate change on land, plants, humans, and other animals.
- Identify personal actions that may affect global climate change.

Interactions and Ecosystems
- 1: Investigate and describe relationships between humans and their environments, and identify related issues and scientific questions.
  - Illustrate how life-supporting environments meet the needs of living things for nutrients, energy sources, moisture, suitable habitat, and exchange of gases.
  - Identify examples of human impacts on ecosystems, and investigate and analyze the link between these impacts and the human wants and needs that give rise to them.
  - Analyze personal and public decisions that involve consideration of environmental impacts, and identify needs for scientific knowledge that can inform those decisions .

- 4: Describe the relationships among knowledge, decisions and actions in maintaining life-supporting environments.
  - Identify intended and unintended consequences of human activities within local and global environments.
  - Describe and interpret examples of scientific investigations that serve to inform environmental decision making.
  - Illustrate, through examples, the limits of scientific and technological knowledge in making decisions about life-supporting environments.
  - Analyze a local environmental issue or problem based on evidence from a variety of sources, and identify possible actions and consequences.

Unit E: Fresh Water & Salt Water Ecosystems

- 1: Describe the distribution and characteristics of water in local and global environments, and identify the significance of water supply and quality to the needs of humans and other living things.
- 2: Investigate and interpret linkages among landforms, water and climate.
- 3: Analyze factors affecting productivity and species distribution in freshwater environments.
- 4: Analyze human impacts on aquatic systems; and identify the roles of science and technology in addressing related questions, problems and issues.
  - - Analyze human water uses, and identify the nature and scope of impacts resulting from different uses.
    - Identify current practices and technologies that affect water quality, evaluate environmental costs and benefits, and identify and evaluate alternatives.
    - Illustrate the role of scientific research in monitoring environments and supporting development of appropriate environmental technologies.
    - Engage in current affairs, issues and concerns of a local nature.

Biological Diversity
- - 1: Investigate and interpret diversity among species and within species, and describe how diversity contributes to species survival
  - 4: Identify impacts of human action on species survival and variation within species, and analyze related issues for personal and public decision making
    -Describe the relative abundance of species on Earth and in different environments
    -Describe ongoing changes in biological diversity through extinction and extirpation of native species, and investigate the role of environmental factors in causing these changes
    -Evaluate the success and limitations of various local and global strategies for minimizing loss of species diversity

Science 10, Unit D: Energy Glow in Global Systems

- 1: Describe how the relationships among input solar energy, output terrestrial energy and energy flow within the biosphere affect the lives of humans and other species.
  -Explain how climate affects the lives of people and other species, and explain the need to investigate climate change.
- 3: Relate climate to the characteristics of the world's major biomes, and compare biomes in different regions of the world.
  -Identify the potential effects of climate change on environmentally sensitive biomes

Bio 11, Unit B: Ecosystems & Population Change

- 20-B1.1k: Define species, population, community and ecosystem and explain the interrelationships among them
- 20-B1.2k: Explain how terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems support a diversity of organisms through a variety of habitats and niches;
- 20-B1.3k: Identify biotic and abiotic characteristics and explain their influence in an aquatic and a terrestrial ecosystem in the local region
- 20-B1.4k: Explain how limiting factors influence organism distribution and range
- 20-B1.1sts: Explain how science and technology have both intended and unintended consequences for humans and the environment