Hatching Youth Potential in Palisade

One man’s 4H spirit shines through in fish hatchery project

In this edition of Community Voices, we’ll see how one man’s positive youth experiences in 4-H helped hatch a river-full of new learning opportunities in Colorado’s Grand Valley. 

David Miller still treasures the values he learned as a 4-H participant growing up in New York.  It’s those values, he says, that fueled his commitment to help develop an innovative high school learning program in Palisade, Colorado.  

“Really 4-H is a youth development organization, and we hope it leads to citizenship and giving back to others, as so many people gave to us,” recalls Miller, now a senior vice president at Alpine Bank’s Clifton location.  “There’s always an opportunity to make things work locally by using global resources, and here was an opportunity – if we were able to seize the moment – to have a fish hatchery pilot in our school that would be integrated with our curriculum, that would help with endangered fish, that would help secure water for agriculture that we desperately need.” 

For Palisade High students, the fish hatchery, which began operation in 2019, has provided important new avenues for learning and developing broader environmental awareness. 

“Our razorback suckers that we raise are an endangered fish in Colorado,” student Kale Potter explained.  “We want to teach people about them, about endangered fish, and teach fish and nature conservation.” 

Palisade student Charlotte Allen said the program has also brought a sense of pride and recognition to the school.  “Our teachers do brag to students about how well our fish hatchery has done. We’ve won several awards, and people love to hear about us,” she said. 

“I love being involved with the community and knowing that I’m helping bring back these endangered species” student Ella Steele added.  “Because if they’re the only 200 left, we know it’s our fish that we brought in, and it’s just cool to be a part of something bigger than myself and bigger than the school and everything.” 

In addition to providing important learning opportunities, Palisade High School Principal Dan Bollinger said the hatchery program has helped strengthen the school’s connections with the surrounding community. 

“I think a fish hatchery on a campus is cool. and if it was rainbow trout and you threw them in the river so we could fish them would be neat,” Bollinger said. “But the fact that it’s an endangered species and to think globally, but then act locally is incredible for kids to know how much they’re affecting the farms. Because we can release the fish, they can divert more water and it’s helping the farms, I think, is much greater than just a cool fish hatchery.” 

Miller said developing the fish hatchery project was a true community effort, involving students, educators, subject matter experts and coordinating a host of resources. 

“My role was to help all the stakeholders understand what was necessary and how to do it in terms of writing the plan, in terms of accessing the funders, in terms of working with the Colorado River District County representative, to look at where the funding could come from,” Miller said.  “It took about five years to get all the pieces together. And I remember Anne, my wife, rolling her eyes saying, ‘What are you doing? This is never going to happen.’ You know all the pieces were so disparate. But there’s that 4-H grit. And I said, ‘This is such a good project. Look at what we can do to develop it. This capacity of the students to meet all these really important needs.’” 

With the hatchery now up and running, Principal Bollinger said the educational and learning opportunities have touched virtually all aspects of the school curriculum. 

“Going down to the Colorado River, we’ve got a fantastic opportunity here geographically to test the quality of the water and doing that. But you think about the math involved in the growth of the fish. You think about tracking the fish and just writing in language arts class, writing about their experience with the fish hatchery. It really in all contexts can be used and applicable. It’s physical, they see it. It’s across the whole school,” Bollinger said. 

“I’ve also learned a lot of personal responsibility,” student Allen added.  “Being responsible for something else, having to come down here and take care of something else and be like, ‘This thing is going to die without me,’ You learn what kind of water chemistry you need to have, and how much you need to be feeding your fish, and how much they weigh, and how much they’re growing, and just all the science of it, you learn and it’s really interesting and you get to learn a lot. And you learn a lot about your friends, your peers and your teachers.” 

“I have the greatest joy in my life now,” Miller said. “The joy I have in being able to go to that Fish Hatchery and see those kids protecting our endangered fish and having new careers. Or connecting the dots with CSU Extension or a long list, like the green team, the environmental leadership I provide as part of my job at Alpine Bank, making a difference is so heartwarming and so gratifying.” 

Beyond just new learning opportunities, student Allen says the fish hatchery has also shown her how much the community values and cares about its youth. 

“We’re talking about people in the community helping out with local school programs, and it’s such an incredible hope for students,” Allen said. “Whenever somebody comes in from our community and is very invested in my education, I’m like, ‘This is somebody who I can trust. This is somebody who I know cares a lot.’ And it means the world, I know, to our fish hatchery to have people from the community be like, ‘You’re doing great. I want to help you. In what way can I help you?’ We just feel so valued and so prioritized, and it really just gives us this sense of worth that really helps us put determination and effort into what we’re doing.”