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Yearly Summaries: Annual Fish Releases​​
Acknowledgments
Special recognition goes to the wonderful staff from the Maine Dept. of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, all volunteers, educators, and community members who made the journey and contributed to the success of this annual conservation event, demonstrating ongoing commitment to salmon habitat restoration and environmental education.
2026 Fish Release Summary​​​
May 22, 2026
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Salmon Eggs were delivered to 3 schools for this years Fish Release:
Hodgdon-Mill Pond-Aimee Goff- Mill Pond – Unfortunately lost all Salmon Fry due to a faulty tank
Baileyville–Woodland–Ellie Cox - Baileyville raised and released approx. 200 Salmon Fry
Danforth–Danforth Middle–Haley Dekeyser - Danforth raised and released 220 Salmon Fry
IF&W arrived at 10:45 and released 1000 Brook Trout – 500 from the bridge and 500 the students carried by bucket to lake
HotDog lunch with chips, cookies and drinks – Gatorade & mini bottles of water.
Elizabeth cooked, CariAnn & Pam served!
Students arrived at 10 and released their Salmon Fry
We started to cook at 10:30 and all had lunch then IF&W released their Brook Trout.
No border tours due to remodel and new equipment – USA would have to “process” all kids back into USA after Canadian visit!
Beautiful weather – small but cozy event
Thank you to our helpers – CariAnn, Elizabeth Quinonez, Pam Stewart, Jerry Wilson, Bob Lyons, Kathy & Pat
2025 Fish Release Summary
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2025 Annual Salmon Release into East Grand Lake
Frank Bolton
The Chiputnecticook Lakes International Conservancy (CLIC) spearheaded by the late Donald “Bones” Ellis who, before retirement as a school principal in Hodgdon, set up a program for young students to nurture salmon fry in freshwater tanks in their classrooms. In abeyance during Covid, the program resumed last year with five schools participating.
On May 23, 2025, the day scheduled for the release, the weather was far from pleasant: rainy, windy, and quite cold. As a result, not all the classes attended the event on the release date. The students from Jacqueline Rogers' Southside Elementary School in Houlton huddled on the bus until 10:15 when they came to the water's edge by the bridge between Orient and Fosterville NB to release their fish.
The bus with Aimee Goff's students from the Mill Pond Elementary School in Hodgdon arrived at around 10:30, simultaneously with the personnel from the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The students released their fry and the IF&W dropped 1,500 trout from the bridge. In the meantime, Peter Chase began cooking hot dogs. The Houlton students ate, then carried buckets of fish to the lake while the Hodgdon students ate.
On May 29th, the students from Haley Dekeyser's Danforth Middle School class went to East Grand Lake and released 212 fry and on May 30, students from Gina Moloney's Woodland School in Baileyville released 198 fry into Grand Lake Stream. Nathan Foster's class at the Greater Houlton Christian Academy also participated in raising salmon fry.