The end of trout fishing in the south east U.S.
 

I came across something disturbing. The Federal Gov. is considering discontinuing funding for the Wolf River and Dale Hollow National Hatcheries. The source of all the trout in the south eastern U.S. Here is a link to the proposed funding cuts http://www.friendsofwolfcreeknfh.com/site/fundingcuts.aspx Here is a link to the petition to stop this from happening. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/save-National-Fish-Hactheries/ This is serious people. Please let's not turn this into a political debate. We all need to stand together and make sure this does not happen. The Dale Hollow Hatchery raises $94.00 for every $1 of funding from the Gov. This means jobs for local economies. Here is a link to the break down. http://www.fws.gov/dalehollow/dale%20hollow%202010%20econ%20fact%20sheet.pdf

I had also heard one of the main targets was the one up in Erwin (east TN)

That is from what I understand the place all the others get the actual eggs from to raise.

I would be very interested to hear a legal perspective on it. It would seem to have way more profit it generates than the savings by getting rid of it.

Why hasn't the Corps/TVA paid for it up to this point anyway? In a lot of the cases for hatchery trout, the Corps/TVA created the need for them to be stocked by building Dams.

In times when people are demanding major cuts to the federal budget, fish hatcheries are an easy target. People who don't fish usually don't realize that they bring a lot more money into the economy than they take out. You think people would be hiring guides, renting cabins, buying flyrods, buying bait and tackle, renting canoes, buying boats, etc., etc., etc., on the Caney, Obey, Elk, Cumberland, Chattahoochee, Clinch, and other tailwaters if there were no trout? There are a lot of jobs there and a lot of tax revenues that people don't think about.

Based on what I've heard, this is indeed a serious threat. I'd recommend calling your elected reps and letting them hear your voice on this one, or I don't know if we can count on their support. Politicians may think cutting fish hatcheries sounds like a politically "safe" way to add to the amount of budget cuts unless they hear otherwise from us.

bd

By the way, here's a news article on the issue:

http://www.wcyb.com/news/27043699/detail.html

It's also ironic that US Fish & Wildlife spent something like $30,000.00 upgrading the hatchery less than two years ago, and now they want to shut it down. Great planning.

bd

Here is a little help.
 

Pleae bombard you reps. on this one. Just because there is pressure to cut the budget our reps need to make business minded decisions. It makes no sense to cut an investment that actually has a return. $1 = $94? Not to mention the values that are instilled in the family by fishing together and not playing video games or watching TV in seperate rooms.


Jim Cooper
http://cooper.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=117&Item id=61

Scott DesJarlais
http://www.scottdesjarlais.com/www/docs/10

Charles J. Fleischmann
https://fleischmann.house.gov/contact-me

John J. Duncan
http://duncan.house.gov/services/contact-information.shtml

Phil Roe
http://roe.house.gov/Contact/contactphil.htm

Diane Black
https://black.house.gov/contact-me

Marsha Blackburn
http://blackburn.house.gov/Contact/

If its closed does it mean that the fish for stocking would come from somewhere else or just no more stocking? Some lakes and rivers will lose large populations without stocking.Years that the crappie and bass have a bad spawn will kill some lakes.Surely they have more sense than to wipeout the wildlife around and in our lakes and rivers?

I think what USFWS would love would be for the federal hatcheries to shut down and the states be forced to take them over. Of course, TWRA's budget is already cut to the bone - keep in mind that they do not get money from the State's general fund for operations.

So either Tennessee would close the hatcheries entirely because they could not afford to operate them, or they'd take over the hatcheries but be forced to drastically raise fishing license prices to cover the operating budget. Right now, federal hatchery costs are spread out over a nationwide federal budget - if it shifts to the State, and ONLY to those people in the State who buy licenses, we fishermen will each individually bear a much greater part of the overall cost.

It's important to remember that the feds have built hydroelectric dams that alter tailwater environments so drastically that nothing can really thrive there in any great numbers but stocked trout (due to extremely cold water and constantly fluctuating depth and current). If they're going to do this, then they ought to be obligated to mitigate for the loss of smallmouth, muskie, walleye, sauger, crappie, white bass, bluegill, etc., by providing a substitute fishery.

bd

That is always what I have thought.

They charge us for the electricity the Dam creates then charge us for the fish they put in to replace the ones the Dam took away. It should be a balanced equation. Should be an obligation to replace that free of charge. The money generated by the Dams more than covers it.

I agree totally, this is an obligation they took on with the decision to construct the dams.

Calm down guys, TWRA has their own hatcheries.

Erwin is a TWRA Hatchery and the one that supplies all the eggs for the others to grow stockable trout.

That is the reason for concern.

The hatchery scheduled for closure is Erwin National Hatchery, here:

http://www.fws.gov/erwin/

The state hatchery is a separate operation aimed at raising fingerlings for stocking, here:

http://erwinstatehatchery.homestead.com/hatchops.html

The national hatchery is a "broodstock" hatchery which produces about 10 million eggs for other hatcheries, plus eggs to research centers, whereas the state hatchery raises about 100,000 trout per year from fingerlings supplied by another hatchery. The federal hatcheries at Dale Hollow and Wolf Creek are also on the closure list.

The problem is that if the national hatcheries at Erwin and Dale Hollow close, the hatcheries in Tennessee won't even remotely be able to produce eggs or raise the number of trout needed for current trout stocking. It won't be even close. The state hatcheries are smaller, they don't have the capacity, and a few need upgrades which TWRA already can't afford.

So no, unfortunately, it's not a good time to "calm down," because we are looking at paying a whole lot more for our trout stamps and fishing licenses if TWRA has to take over the much larger hatchery operations from the feds. I don't think TWRA would be able to manage the type of license increase we'd be talking about, so the likely result would be drastically reduced trout stocking - and at higher cost to TWRA, since the State would have to get our fingerlings and eggs from somewhere other than Erwin and Dale Hollow.

bd

I know it would still be a cost involved and probably passed on to us but could the TWRA buy those hatcheries? The front end may be more expensive on us but if long term we will have to buy trout through other channels to stock won't a move like that pay off in the end.

I'd pay for it.

In the past, states have acquired federal hatcheries. I know that many years ago, the Senecaville federal hatchery in Ohio was acquired by the State of Ohio. Since the Dale Hollow Hatchery is located in KY, they would probably have to be the ones to acquire it.

Dale Hollow is in Tennessee, in Celina. You are probably thinking of Wolf Creek National Hatchery, which is in Kentucky.

I would like to think that TWRA would acquire the hatcheries, but it will be tough to make the numbers work with TWRA's budget. Our licenses in Tennessee are already not cheap, and I shudder to think what kind of cost increase it would involve for the State to take over the hatcheries. Hopefully the feds will figure out some other way to manage the budget without USFWS closing the doors on the hatcheries.

bd