Brian Petersen

Young Chinook salmon are making their annual journey to Lake Michigan. For some of them, growing and gaining strength for the trip began, not in a river, but in a sixth-grade classroom in Van Buren County.

Jane Larson began teaching at Paw Paw Middle School 16 years ago. Last year, she joined a program created by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources called “Salmon in the Classroom”. Larson says her new principal, Jerry McDaniel, gave her the idea; "I signed up and there was a workshop at the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery and they got us going with it.”

Tracie McMillan wanted to find out what happens to food before it reaches the table and how income and lifestyle impact what we eat. 

Sturgeon have lived in the Great Lakes longer than humans have walked the earth. But the ancient fish now need our help to stay here. A joint project by the federal and state officials with a Native American tribe is trying to do that by rebuilding habitat for lake sturgeon in the Kalamazoo River. WMUK’s Brian Petersen went along to find out how it’s done.