The Government of La Rioja will give new impetus to awareness and education actions on mountain river ecosystems necessary protection and conservation of native trout in Brieva.
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Affairs and the Environment, Noemí Manzanos, inaugurated this Monday, November 11, together with the General Director of Natural Environment and Landscape, Ignacio Saénz de Urturi, and the Mayor of Brieva de Cameros, Daniel Carrillo, an environmental classroom that houses the Ichthyological Center Brieva of Cameros, which will promote actions in the field of education and awareness about mountain river ecosystems and the native trout, and for which an investment of almost 50,000 euros is involved.
This initiative has been implemented by the General Directorate for Natural Environment and Landscape with the aim of offering an environmental education and dissemination service across mountain river ecosystemslike the one that makes up the river Brieva, and in which native trout and the need for their conservation will serve as the common thread of the new space.
He new equipment in the Brieva Ichthyological Center, which also has a new logo, features a large exterior panel that welcomes visitors with a map that allows the identification of the different facilities that make up the center, both the production facilities (laboratories, incubators and the ponds where the trout are kept in their different growth stages ), just like the rest of the supporting facilities.
The environmental classroom is located in the space previously used as a warehouse, with little use and of about 50 square meters, now conditioned and equipped with information and exhibition materials with a striking design to attract the attention of visitors, inform and raise awareness of the most relevant aspects related to mountain riverswith regular trout and with the fish farm itself.
The trout of the Brieva River
For this purpose, four large information panels have been placed on the walls of the classroom. The first focuses on the Najerilla River as an example to explain the special characteristics and values of mountain rivers; and in the river Brieva, next to which the ichthyological center is located, because it presents itself in its highest parts the ideal habitat for trout to live.
The second panel shows an impressive drawing that aims to reflect the valuable and fragile ecosystem that these mountain rivers represent emblematic species of flora and fauna that live there, such as the European mink, the otter, the Iberian desman, the musgaño, the native crab, the roach and the red-tailed barbel or the trout itself. A third panel is entirely dedicated to the common trout, “the queen of the river”, explaining its habits, its importance to the ecosystem and its life cycle.
In addition, a final panel is included with the aim of informing and raising awareness of the impacts to which river ecosystems are exposed and which directly affect the species that inhabit these ecosystems. special emphasis on the individual and collective solutions we have at our disposal to protect them. At the back of the room, two large photographs of native trout are installed, as well as a tactile sculpture of common native trout measuring approximately 70 cm, in which every detail of this species can be appreciated.
The environmental classroom also includes an audiovisual module with a large screen on which visitors can see one of two audiovisual images created to demonstrate the operation of the Ichthyological Center of Brieva the Cameros and the work carried out there at different times of the year, to the sanitary conditions necessary for trout farmingFor safety reasons, not all facilities will be entered during the guided tours.
One of the audiovisual programs is aimed at the general public and the second, more comprehensive and detailing the work of the Ichthyological Center, is designed with visitors with a more technical or specialized profile in mind, such as students from different training cycles. in the field of conservation biodiversity or fishing communitiesFor example.
The conditioning of the environmental classroom also included the installation of several benches in front of the audiovisual module, the installation of laminate flooring and a general and exhibition lighting system in the classrooms, as well as the signage of the other elements that make up the center to facilitate your identification during the routes followed during the tours.
Students and the public are welcome
In this way the environmental classroom of the Ichthyological Center of Brieva de Cameros joins the Network of Nature Interpretation Centers managed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Affairs and the Environment and will be part of the offer of interpretive routes and guided tours by the ‘Pasea La Rioja’ program, both for the general public and for organized groups such as schoolchildren.
The latter will be able to visit it from next spring, in an activity that combines a visit to the center with a simple circular route of only two kilometers it starts from the center and takes you along the riverbank Brieva to the source of this tributary of the Najerilla.
The Ichthyological Center of Brieva Owned by the Government of La Rioja, the Cameros was launched in 1998 and reorganized existing rainbow trout farming facilities with a threefold aim: to restore native trout populations in the parts most affected by human activities, thereby preserving valuable river ecosystems in be held; get quality wild trout, with good physical-sanitary and genetically identical conditions to those of natural populations; and ensuring sufficient fish supply to meet the social demand for leisure, which is also an economic driver in rural areas.
Since then Every year they are repopulated in the Rioja rivers from this center (only in the most modified sections, about 300 kilometers) come 200,000 fertilized eggs, 800,000 young fry (between 1 and 6 grams); 50,000 yearlings (between 7 and 80 grams); and 20,000 catchable trout. A total of about 13,000 kilos of native trout.
After more than twenty years of reproduction programs, this new environmental classroom will help publicize and, above all, highlight the procedures, results and experiences of production and control carried out at the center. Moreover, the enormous importance of his role as instrument to manage fisheries in La Rioja in a sustainable way.