photo by: Niamh Coomey

Fifth-grade students from Elm Grove Elementary school work together Tuesday to dump about 4,000 pounds of trophy-sized trout into Big Wheeling Creek.

WHEELING — A group of Elm Grove Elementary School fifth graders buzzed with excitement Tuesday morning as they waited in a line holding buckets that would soon be filled with rainbow trout, part of an Earth Day effort to restock Big Wheeling Creek’s fish population and keep the creek clean.

Energy companies Expand Energy and Williams collaborated to organize a garbage cleanup of over 150 employees and community members around the creek throughout the morning. Then, the elementary students worked with volunteers to dump their buckets into the creek, replenishing the local habitat with 4,000 pounds of trophy-sized trout.

Aside from the benefits for the local environment, the event is also an opportunity for the students to learn hands-on about being good stewards of the earth. Leading up to the fish restock, they have been doing classwork on the importance of keeping the earth clean and what it takes to keep a stream ecosystem healthy.

Maggie Wallen, who works in community outreach for Williams, said the restock is something fun for the students to do while learning about safety and the importance of the outdoors.

The fifth graders were prepared to be immersed in nature Tuesday — and to get wet. Teachers instructed the students to bring an extra change of clothes. Some children made faces of disgust as the fish thrashed around in their buckets, splashing them in the face and arms. Others squealed with joy and excitement.

“Doing this to give back to the community and help promote a love for the outdoors and a love for fishing and the natural beauty that’s in West Virginia, instilling that appreciation is really important to us,” Wallen said.

Taking time to care for the creek each year is also important for the hundreds of employees of the two energy companies.

“It’s important to us because our employees live here and work here and we want to make sure that these areas are kept clean and nice and that operating in this area we want to do our part to help out with that,” Wallen said.

Expand Energy Community Affairs Manager Stephanie Paluda echoed this sentiment.

“As the largest producer of natural gas in the country, we just want to make sure that we’re giving back to the areas that are so important to us, so Big Wheeling Creek is a big resource for us and we want to make sure that we leave it better than we found it,” Paluda said.

Expand collaborates with several organizations to make the event happen. The Ohio County Sheriff’s Department was present on scene to make sure the children could safely cross the road to Big Wheeling Creek.

The Department of Natural Resources instructs the group on where and how to effectively dump the trout, as well as what kind to stock each year.

“We want to make sure that the trout can not only survive but thrive and not just create a fish kill because we put in too much, so it’s a partnership between a lot of people,” Paluda said.

Though coordinating with all the participating organizations and groups is complicated, Paluda said Wheeling gas and energy employees are the right people to get the job done.

“I’m always lucky to have volunteers who are used to complicated logistics because those guys make sure this is a seamless day,” Paluda said. “It’s so important for us and a great way to celebrate not only Earth Day but National Volunteer Week as well.”