Fly Fishing Instructor, Temple Grandin School
Mike is an outdoor education and fly fishing instructor at Temple Grandin School, a school built for neurodivergent learners. He teaches quarterly fly fishing and fly tying classes as part of a broader focus on bringing river ecology education to youth.
Colorado Riverwatch
Mike brought the Riverwatch program to Temple Grandin School — a statewide volunteer water quality monitoring effort run in partnership between River Science and Colorado Parks & Wildlife. Mike and a group of students trained and became certified to sample and analyze local waters, contributing real data to a program that supplies roughly a third of Colorado's water quality monitoring statewide.
Trout in the Classroom
Mike spearheaded bringing Trout in the Classroom into the River Ecology program at Temple Grandin School. In this national Trout Unlimited program, students raise trout from eggs to fingerlings before releasing them into a nearby coldwater stream — building a direct, hands-on connection between the classroom and watershed conservation.