Crowds of fourth-graders flowed between informational booths, storytelling from a Twulshootseed speaker and the chance to release a live salmon fry into the water this week at the Hylebos Blueberry Farm Park.

The four-day event is called Storming the Sound with Salmon, and this year’s version began months ago when salmon eggs were delivered to middle and high school students around the district.

The Federal Way students assist their teachers in caring for the salmon, and city staff monitor their well-being with weekly visits — then get to watch the salmon eggs hatch and move through their lifecycle to the alevin stage and then to the fry stage.

The responsibility is then passed to the fourth-graders, who release the 1- to 2-inch fish into the Hylebos Wetlands by pouring them down a PVC slide and into the open water. The fish will continue to grow in size and make their way to the ocean, where they will spend several years before migrating back toward their original freshwater home to spawn.

“Environmental education is important for students, for kids, to know what happens in the world and how different ecosystems respond to one another…And then I think just caring for the salmon from egg to release day as a really important part of that ecosystem teaches them responsibility,” Superintendent Dani Pfeiffer said.

As the fourth-graders get ready for the big day, they spend a few weeks focusing on an interdisciplinary study of salmon.

This year brought new additions to the curriculum as part of the “John McCoy (lulilaš) Since Time Immemorial” curriculum required by the state.

Curriculum examples and resources are available online from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) and include grade appropriate materials. Lessons focus on the role of salmon in local ecosystems along with traditional ways and the history of the fight for native fishing rights in the area that reached a height in the 1960s during the Fish Wars.

The Since Time Immemorial curriculum also encourages connection to local tribes. Federal Way Public Schools has partnered with the Puyallup and Muckleshoot tribes to develop and implement this curriculum, adding new strategies to do this more each year.

Storming the Sound specifically has been going on for at least 10 years, but began with participation from just a few classes. Since then, it has expanded to include all fourth-graders and the curriculum around it has become interdisciplinary with collaboration from multiple subjects including science and social studies. In addition to the native education aspect, they learn about water cycles and ecosystems and about the life cycle of salmon.

Mayor Jim Ferrell said he didn’t get the chance to do anything like this when he went to elementary school in Federal Way and celebrated the event, saying:“It really does remind people that this actually is what the area looked like, you know, 100 years ago, and it really is a great way to connect with nature and understand the systems in place.”

Storming the Sound with Salmon is an annual event and collaboration between Federal Way Public Schools and the city of Federal Way.

The Environmental Services Division specifically worked for six months to plan, coordinate and execute the event in what the city’s Public Education and Outreach Coordinator Chelsea Brown called a “massive undertaking”.

Many local organizations also made the event possible, including the Orca Conservancy, Puyallup Tribe, King Conservation, Environmental Science Center, Shadow Lake Nature Preserve, Long Live the Kings, FISH, Puget Sound Estuarium, Harbor WW, Lakehaven, Earthcorps, Mountains to Sound and the Department of Natural Resources.

Salmon fry are set out on a table in cups for students to choose (and name if they want) before releasing them into the waters at the Hylebos Wetlands. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Mayor Jim Ferrell and Superintendent Dr. Dani Pfeiffer joined students at the annual Storming the Sound with Salmon event at the Hylebos Blueberry Farm Park on April 29. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Once students select their tiny salmon fry, they drop the salmon into the pond through a slide, with support from city staff from the Federal Way Public Works Department. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror

Kayla Guyett (Jicarilla Apache) shares a story about salmon in both English and Twulshootseed, the language of the Puyallup Tribe at one of the stations during the Storming the Sound with Salmon event. Photo by Keelin Everly-Lang / the Mirror