The southern steelhead trout has been low in numbers in recent years, but one Huntington Beach high school is now prepared to lend a hand toward saving the species.
Edison High held a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday morning for an expansion to its campus Innovation Lab, where it will house the endangered fish through a partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The new system, funded by the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains through a CDFW grant, will protect up to 650 trout rescued from creeks impacted by drought, wildfire and debris flows.
Greg Gardiner, a science teacher at Edison and a 2018 California Teacher of the Year, said the lab will provide a temporary home for the steelhead trout until they can be returned to the wild. Gardiner is the Innovation Lab co-director, along with Diane Drogo.
“Here, our students will not only learn how to protect the species, but why it really matters,” Gardiner said during Thursday’s ceremony. “They will take part in hands-on activities to show them the direct connection between what we do on campus, and the health of the wildlife in our local ecosystems.”
The system was built by lab manager Alexandria Griffith (Edison class of 2023) and assistant lab director Thomas Khoury (class of 2021) as Gardiner was out recovering from knee surgery. Griffith and Khoury now attend Orange Coast College and Cal State Long Beach, respectively.
Two large holding tanks will contain the trout, while a water cleansing system ensures they are safe until a new habitat can be found.
The Innovation Lab, which launched in 2014 in a converted auto shop on campus, serves to educate students in aquatic ecosystem conservation, preservation and restoration, as well as sustainable agriculture.
Edison Principal Matt White thanked Huntington Beach Union High School District Trustees Bonnie Castrey, Diana Carey and Duane Dishno for attending Thursday’s ceremony, and for supporting Gardiner’s ideas over the years.
“I’m not nervous at all about having an endangered species on our campus,” White said with a smile, later calling the Innovation Lab’s expansion a milestone for the school. “As a principal, I couldn’t ask for anything else besides bringing a program in that truly inspires kids, and they understand why that work is so incredibly important. That is unique. It doesn’t always happen on a high school campus, and this is going to be a prime example of that.”
The partnership was formed as Erinn Wilson-Olgin, a regional manager with Fish and Wildlife and Huntington Beach resident, had her son Reid enroll at Edison in 2022. He became a freshman student in Gardiner’s biology and sustainable agriculture class.
“Erinn came through [the Innovation Lab] on an eighth grade parent night,” Gardiner said. “Later on, she brought her whole team in and I gave them a tour.”
Wilson-Olgin called Rosi Dagit with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Dagit, who also attended Thursday’s ceremony, said the transitional habitat is certainly needed. From 1994 to 2018, she said less than 200 southern steelhead trout were observed from Santa Barbara County south to the United States’ border with Mexico.
RCDSMM has been doing steelhead trout research for the last decade.
“That’s not a lot of fish that are left on the landscape, so it’s really processes and projects like this that are really crucial,” Dagit said. “When a fire comes through and subsequent rains happen, all of the habitat goes away. Where do we put the fish?”
The answer to that question is now Edison High School. Dagit thanked former state Assemblyman Richard Bloom for championing the cause in Sacramento to help secure funding.
“Everybody has come together on this,” Dagit said. “I can’t tell you how exciting it is to be here today 10 years later and see these ideas actually become a reality.”
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