All boys. All boarding. Grades 9-12.
Basil Boyd ’17 Leads Trout in the Classroom Project at Orange County High School
Basil Boyd ’17 has spent his senior year at Woodberry Forest School sharing his love of wildlife with students at Orange County High School by leading them in Trout in the Classroom. The program is designed to teach about ecosystems and conservation by providing students with eggs to raise into fingerlings and release into waterways. “I knew about the program because I participated in it before I came to Woodberry,” Basil says.
He connected with biology and ecology teacher Anna Burkett, who was eager for her students to participate, and applied for a Class of 2008 Community Service grant to fund the purchase of a 50-gallon aquarium and chiller in which to hatch and foster the young brook trout. Basil’s father, Manly Boyd ’84, came from Martinsville, Virginia, last fall to deliver the tank where nearly a hundred fertilized eggs would hatch and grow. Since then, Basil has regularly visited Anna’s classroom to check on the fish and teach lessons on the species’ lifecycle, needs for survival, and habitat.
The two dozen students and their young project leader met up for one last time on April 19, 2017, to release their hatchlings into the Rose River in Madison County. There, they met with Woodie Walker of Friends of the Rappahannock, who led them in activities designed to measure the health of the river and to acclimate the thumb-sized fish, carried in a cooler to the site, to the temperature of the river. When he saw the size and health of the fish the students had nurtured, Woodie praised them and their teacher for the excellent care they’d provided through feeding and careful monitoring. After the water testing and invertebrate counting was complete, each student netted a single trout and gently tipped it into the clear, flowing water.
Basil Boyd ’17 plans to attend Sewanee: The University of the South, where he will study business and environmental sustainability. He will also pursue his passion for golf: this Tiger team captain will play on Sewanee’s varsity team. He serves as prefect on Middle Taylor.
The Class of 2008 Community Service Program was established by parents and grandparents of the Class of 2008 as a gift to Woodberry Forest. The program enhances Woodberry’s commitment to service learning by providing resources for students who wish to spearhead a service project during the school year or the summer.
See photos of the fish release on the Woodberry Forest School photo album.
Woodberry Forest School is an exceptional private school community for high school boys in grades nine through twelve. It is one of the top boarding schools in the United States and one of the only all-boys, all-boarding schools in the country.
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Woodberry Forest admits students of any race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, and national or ethnic origin to all of the rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual orientation, disability, religious belief, or national or ethnic origin in the administration of its educational policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic or other school-administered programs. The school is authorized under federal law to enroll nonimmigrant students.