Statewide fish hatchery open house set for June 7

MADISON -- People are invited to tour the facilities where state fisheries crews spawn or hatch and raise 70 million fish annually, and enjoy fun family activities during the statewide fish hatchery open house June 7.

"We hope to get people to come out to the hatcheries to enjoy the tranquil surroundings and see the kind of work our hatcheries staff does to help maintain fishing opportunities in the state," says Theresa Stabo, aquatic resources educator with the Department of Natural Resources. "At some of our facilities we'll have family activities like casting games, fish T-shirt printing and instruction in knot-tying and other fishing basics."

The events, scheduled at most of the state's 14 hatcheries and three spawning facilities, are part of DNR's efforts to highlight Wisconsin's water resources and recreation during 2003, designated in Wisconsin as the Year of Water. The statewide open house also coincides with Free Fishing Weekend, June 7-8, during which people can fish free without a license.

In addition to promoting fishing, hatchery officials hope the open house will help people better understand the state propagation system's role in providing fishing opportunities and the challenges the system faces with aging facilities and growing demands for fishing opportunities.

"Stocking is one of the tools we use to manage fish and provide fishing opportunities in Wisconsin, just like regulations, and habitat protection and restoration are tools," says Al Kaas, statewide propagation coordinator. "Our stocking program is more than 125 years old and we're very proud of that history. But the role of stocking is evolving. We want to increase awareness of those changes and also of the challenges we're facing."

Many of the state hatcheries are 50 to 100 years old and in need of major repairs or renovations to meet current environmental laws and to use state-of-the-art fish propagation techniques. The priority project, renovating Wild Rose State Fish Hatchery, has been approved by the state building commission and Gov. Jim Doyle's 2003-2005 budget calls for spending $12.7 million for the first phase of renovation. That will overhaul the facilities where trout are hatched and raised and allow the hatchery to meet groundwater laws written after its construction.

Wild Rose now produces 27 percent of all trout and salmon stocked statewide, 64 percent of northern pike, 100 percent of lake sturgeon, and a significant share of spotted musky. The integral role the hatchery plays, as well as its central location and abundant groundwater resources, made it a priority, Kaas says. The total $22.5 million renovation will be funded with a combination of Salmon Stamp funds, federal Sport Fish Restoration funds, and Fish & Wildlife Account funds.

Wisconsin's state-owned hatchery system dates to 1876, when the Nevin State Fish Hatchery opened on the outskirts of Madison. Facilities quickly followed in Bayfield and Woodruff. By 1979, at least 38 hatcheries had been established statewide, some of them short-lived. They cranked out millions and millions of fish, most of them days old fish called fry, and the fish were stocked without much regard to a water's habitat and other fish species in the water.

At the time, stocking was seen as a panacea to promoting more fishing opportunities when overexploitation was hurting native stocks. In 1937, in fact, Wisconsin set a national record for fish propagation when it raised and released more than 1 billion fish, most of them fry.

Today, Wisconsin's hatcheries emphasize producing smaller volumes of larger, higher quality fish that survive better.

"Our number one priority is restoration stocking, and our second stocking priority is to answer specific research questions," Kaas says. "Where it's too expensive to do habitat work, we do stocking that's intended to maintain an existing fishery that's been reduced due to outside factors that may not be fixed easily or inexpensively."

The system is also moving to use fish captured from the wild to serve as broodstock instead of year after year depending on domestic fish kept at the hatcheries for their broodstock. Fisheries staff have been particularly successful with a wild trout program, which research has shown produces a fish that is more wary and challenging for anglers while surviving at much better rates than offspring produced from domestic broodstock.

These and other changes in the propagation system are chronicled in the displays at many of the facilities. A listing of events for the statewide Fish Hatchery Open House follows.

2003 Hatchery Open Houses, Saturday, June 7, 2003

FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT: Al Kaas (608) 267-7865; Theresa Stabo (608) 266-2272

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