WATERBURY, VT - Here's a chance to help contribute to fisheries conservation efforts in Vermont. The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department are asking for volunteer help with the stocking of landlocked Atlantic salmon fry into the Huntington River on Saturday, May 24.

The inch-long salmon fry will be scatter-stocked into shallow areas where they will grow for two to three years before migrating out to Lake Champlain to mature and eventually return to the rivers as adults.

Landlocked salmon fry have been stocked annually in the Huntington River since 1998 in an effort to help restore landlocked salmon to Lake Champlain. Fisheries biologists from both agencies hope this effort will contribute to increased returns of adult salmon to the Winooski River and provide increased fishing opportunities in the lower Winooski. Many of the returning adults will be collected in the Winooski One Hydroelectric Facility's fish trap at the Salmon Hole in Winooski. They will then be trucked upstream past three dams and released, giving them access to spawning areas in the Winooski River drainage, including the Huntington River.    

Volunteers are asked to bring a clean five-gallon pail. You also may want to bring a pair of hip boots or chest waders, but they are not necessary if you don't mind getting your feet wet and cold. Unless water flows are unusually high, stocking will take place rain or shine.

Interested people should contact Nick Staats at the Essex Junction Fish & Wildlife Office at (802) 879-5679 or toll free instate at 1-800-640-3714.

-30-