Federal Hatcheries Closing?

[kjackson]

I've heard rumors about it, and I got a bit of confirmation, but there is a move underway to cut back or close federal fish hatcheries. This is a budgetary thing, but from what I've heard from the American Sportfishing Association, the Feds are not very forthcoming with information.

Being new to the area, I don't really know what impacts it might have here, but there are federal hatcheries in the area, and any cutbacks would impact fish stocks. This isn't a regional thing, but it would have impact from coast to coast--wherever federal hatcheries are in place. I don't know much more about it, unfortunately. Supposedly, we'll get the full story when the budget proposals come out.

[Jerry Rapp]

well, and this will start a good round of politico talk, the USA debt is now almost 17 TRILLION dollars. http://usdebtclock.org/ Where do you start cutting?

[Feathers and Fins]

Where do you start cutting?

With Politicians Salaries, Staff and waivers from having to abide by the laws they force on us would be a start.

[Jerry Rapp]

we all need to look at the big picture. Federal fish hatcheries, politician salaries, federal employee salaries, etc, have nothing to do with SEVENTEEN dollars of debt. I was being sarcastic, the USA is in deep do do. The electorate has to make some wise choices in the next few years.

[Old plug]

Sorry Jerry your only the electorate. You do not really control anything but the people you send to office. And if course that is governed by the media. and a lot of various prejudices. What they do after they get there for the people that buy them you may never know. Its all hidden in amendments and earmarks. Discretionary spending is a place they waste a lot if money. They do not care about little people. i do not think they paid attention in history class in school. Time is coming I am afraid when that will change and it wont be pleasant.

[Quillback]

Seems this hatchery closing deal comes up every year.

[fishinwrench]

It's like groundhog day.

[bfishn]

There's actually a little substance to the rumors this time, but it's relatively old news. It stems from a Feb. 2011 USFWS news release (excerpt);

National Fish Hatchery Operations – Mitigation ($6.3 million decrease)
The FY 2012 request contains a reduction of funding for National Fish Hatchery Operations of nearly $6.3 million and 65 FTE. At several of its hatcheries, the Service produces fish to mitigate the adverse effects of Federal water development projects constructed by other Federal agencies. States depend on these activities to stock fisheries which provide economic benefit to local communities. The Service has been working to recover costs from the Federal agencies that built and operate these water infrastructure projects, and will continue ongoing reimbursement discussions with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the Tennessee Valley Authority, Central Utah Project Completion Act, and the Bonneville Power Administration.

Of the 70+ USFWS hatcheries, the only ones under closure study are nine "mitigation" hatcheries, which includes Greers Ferry, Norfork, and Neosho. USFWS contends that the agencies responsible (USACE in our case, TVA in others) for the need for mitigation (dams) should foot the bill, which isn't an unreasonable position when money gets tight.

But... at the same time they were considering the closures, we built a $3.7M visitor center at Neosho. The company I work for did the plumbing and the geothermal HVAC and I had some involvement in the design of the mechanical room equipment that supports the live displays. (If you haven't been to the new VC, it's pretty cool).

While old news, it isn't over yet. The mitigation hatchery in Spearfish SD was slated to close this Oct 1. Just last week, the USFWS put that closure on hold.

There's no logic in closing any of these hatcheries, as they're low budget operations, and they're proven money makers. Every dollar spent there generates from 25 to 95 dollars in local spending, which in turn generates over two dollars in federal tax income.

On a marginally-related note, I suspect we'll come to regret our refusal of the BlueWay designation, which could have been significant leverage in keeping the local hatcheries funded.

[Wayne SW/MO]

Of course they would consider mitigation hatcheries because they would cause the biggest negative impacts on the economy. The problem with that is first it's a debt owned to the people around the tailwaters for destroying the native environment. The second thing is it's time for the politicians to quit with the tantrum throwing over how much money they can throw around. If they can send money out of the country and fund every little piss ant grant, they can fund their mitigation debts.

[Al Agnew]

As far as I know, and I may be wrong, there is little or no stocking of warmwater fish in public waters in MO and AR, except for some things MDC does itself, like hatching native walleye and paddlefish. If warmwater hatcheries were closed, I'm not sure it would have a big impact of fisheries in the Ozarks. Coldwater hatcheries, on the other hand, would have a big impact.

But it's also quite true that the hatcheries are pretty inexpensive, have the potential to generate income, and closing them isn't even going to be a drop in the bucket on the debt. I have to chuckle when people start saying that we need to get rid of the waste in discretionary spending, and stop foreign aid, and cut legislators' salaries to solve the debt crisis. You could stop ALL discretionary spending on everything, make the legislators work for nothing, and stop all foreign aid of all kinds, and you still wouldn't make a dent in the debt. It's just that things like hatcheries and salaries seem like easy targets, while cutting entitlement spending and military spending is politically difficult.