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WHS student's project hooks new hatchery
School celebrates facility
opening, which was a culmination of Henry Balensifer’s years-long
work
Kara Hansen, The Daily Astorian
Monday, April 30, 2007
Reprinted
with permission from The Daily Astorian of Astoria, Oregon
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ALEX
PAJUNAS — The
Daily
Astorian
Warrenton
High School
senior Henry Balensifer raises his arms in victory during an
assembly in the school’s gym to commemorate the rebuilt fish
hatchery operated on the school’s campus. Tod Jones, the
fisheries project manager for the Clatsop Economic Development
Council, honors Balensifer with a hat, mug and plaque for his
volunteer efforts in getting the hatchery rebuilt.
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ALEX PAJUNAS — The Daily Astorian
Henry Tussing scoops up a net full of salmon to show fellow
Warrenton students from left, Alan Jorgenson, Dillon Lamping and
James Carey. Tussing helps clean and take care of the fish
hatchery as part of an elective class. He hopes it will evolve
from a maintenance class into one that includes genetic studies
of the fish.
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Warrenton
- Last fall, the prospect of a brand-new fish-rearing facility at
Warrenton
High School
seemed a little far-fetched.
Student Henry Balensifer had only recently revived the school's fish
farm program, which had closed from lack of funding in 2003. The class
was readying to raise its second hatch of fish, and could make do with
the make-shift building and equipment, Balensifer said back then.
However, he and Principal Rod Heyen said they worried about the
deteriorating roof. And a faulty pump and ill-fitting pipes presented
some challenges for the hatchery, where thousands of steelhead, coho
and chinook eggs are placed in incubators, then raised in tanks until
old enough for release into the river.
Fast-forward a year and a half, and Warrenton High has a brand-new
facility.
The Fisheries Research and Rearing Facility opened Friday, operated by
nonprofit Warrenton High Fisheries Inc. (or WarHF, pronounced like
"wharf.")
Balensifer, 18, started the organization when prodded by longtime
local fisherman Rick Newell, who died last September.
Friday's ribbon-cutting marked the culmination of a years-long project
by Balensifer, a senior at Warrenton High and a third-generation
gillnet fisherman.
Despite his roots in the local fishing industry, that's not what drove
his campaign.
"The community has invested so much in my life, and I felt it was
my turn to give back. Around here, fish is the rule in the
community," Balensifer said. "It's not about me, it's not
about the fish. It's about the community. And that's how this turned
out. We had a quarter-million dollars put into this project the past
year."
The recent communitywide effort echoed the program's start in the
1950s, when the high school hatchery began with students raising fish
in buckets. A physical education class constructed the building and
adjacent pumphouse. Teacher Larry Ballman spearheaded those efforts
and was credited with introducing net-pen fish-rearing in
Oregon
.
Many of those involved with the original facility were present at the
new building's opening, as was the latest generation of supporters,
including state Sen. Betsy Johnson, Rep. Debbie Boone, Brig. Gen.
Michael Caldwell, Clatsop County Economic Development Council
fisheries project manager Tod Jones, Craig Urness of Pacific Coast
Seafoods and representatives of Gov. Ted Kulongoski and U.S. Rep.
David Wu. Two helicopters flew overhead before an assembly began.
Jones presented the high-school hatchery manager with a "best
state student volunteer" award from the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife's Salmon and Trout Enhancement Program advisory council.
Johnson credited Balensifer for "perseverance and
commitment," and said the revitalized program will provide
"a portal of entry for people who want to pursue careers in the
fields here, or to pursue higher education." She also recognized
the teen's political prowess - he plans to study political science at
George
Fox
University
next year. "Henry has a lot of friends in government,"
Johnson said.
Boone said she was particularly enthused to see the private and public
partnerships at play in Warrenton with help from a student.
"Usually we see someone a little bit older pulling something like
this together," she said. "I do a lot of work with
fisheries, and this is exactly what we need. This is something for our
future."
But aside from the "shock and awe" of the grand opening,
Balensifer thinks interest will stay strong in the program.
When he reopened the hatchery program as student manager two years
ago, about six classmates were involved. That grew to 15 who pitched
in with the program this school year. But Balensifer said 100 have
applied for next year's class; Warrenton High's student population is
about 286.
"I anticipate that once this dedication is over, we will have an
even bigger increase in interest in the program," he said.
"We will definitely have more stuff going on."
The new facility sits in the same spot the old building, along the
banks of the
Skipanon
River
behind the high school. Members of the National Guard were responsible
for most of the construction.
Next year, calculus students will analyze information and generate
statistics with materials gathered in the new laboratory by a wireless
data collection system and the natural resources hatchery class.
"The research lab is very important because we're on-site, we're
on the river. We don't have to take trips to get samples," said
Balensifer. "We want students to do original research, not
anything that's been done before ... where kids can say 'I did this,
and I contributed this to society.'"
There's also a new pump, and it's virtually fair-proof. Gus Fennerty
taught high school agriculture classes in the 1980s. He remembers a
time when light atop the Crab Pot bridge signaled whether the hatchery
pump was up and running. If it wasn't, students or teachers would bolt
to the facility to figure out the problems. Apparently that happened
fairly often.
"The water supply wasn't too reliable," explained Fennerty.
"You'd have to run out and get the gas going to get it
started." Later, an automatic dialer would phone teachers and
students when the pump failed, "to make sure someone could start
it and keep the fish alive," he said.
Balensifer guessed the pump worked about 70 percent of the time last
year. "One time, we even rigged leather and duct tape and a hose
to make it work," he said. But the new facility is prepared for
six different scenarios of pump failure, and it's backed by a new
generator strong enough to power a tugboat. The generator will kick on
automatically if something goes wrong, which means no more midnight
trips for students involved with the fish hatchery.
And the old barrel tanks - their insides marked with chipped paint,
eaten away by years' worth of caustic water - are mostly gone,
although a few remained last week for comparison, dwarfed by the new
tubs filled with flowing water. The new facility is twice as large as
the old one and can rear up to 320,000 fish.
Balensifer stressed that the facility may be up and running, but the
project is not complete.
"This project is constantly growing and will continue to grow
over the years," he said. "This legacy has lasted since
1959, and will only continue."
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