Funding For Norfork & Greers Ferry

[Don Allenbaugh]

Christmas came early for employees of the Norfork and Greers Ferry National Fish Hatcheries, as well as local trout fishing enthusiasts, when Congress approved the 2012 Budget. The budget includes a total of $7.2 million for the nine mitigation hatcheries which were defunded by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service in their original budget request. According to Leon Alexander, a spokesperson for the local Friends of the Norfork Fish Hatchery, information submitted by Congressman Rick Crawford's office says the funding is $3.8 million by the Corps of Engineers who will in turn reimburse the Fish and Wildlife Service and $3.8 million from the service. The original request was for $6.9 million, so the $7.2 million covers full funding plus the remainder and additional funds from peripheral reimbursements will be for deferred maintenance.

Alexander says this is really good news for the hatchery employees and all who depend on the Trout Hatcheries as a source of income and for Baxter County and the local economy, in particular, which relies heavily on trout fishing as a primary source of sales tax income.

According to Alexander, this took a tremendous effort on the part of the Arkansas Congressional Staffs to accomplish this change in funding given current efforts to reduce all federal budgets. He says Crawford and Senators Mark Pryor and John Bozeman were tireless in their efforts to secure this funding for the Norfork and Greers Ferry National Fish Hatcheries.

Alexander adds this caution that although the funding has been approved for next year, it does not include any provisions for future funding. He says there is still a lot of work to be done to secure future funds which will allow these important resources to exist without the annual threat of closure.