Fish and Boat Commission, USFWS to raise 100,000 adult trout
The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) and the United State Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) announced a cooperative agreement to raise 100,000 adult trout annually over the next five years at the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery in Warren. The brook trout raised under this program will be stocked in Pennsylvania waters designated by the PFBC, including those in the Allegheny National Forest. Joining PFBC Executive Director Peter Colangelo at today’s signing were Dr. Rick Bennett and Dr. Jaimie Geiger, of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Regional Office and Fred Griffiths, the manager of the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery.
Under the terms of the agreement, signed at the PFBC’s headquarters in Harrisburg, the USFWS will begin raising approximately 100,000 brook trout at the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery, with the first stocking of adult trout to take place in the spring of 2004. In return, the PFBC will compensate the USFWS for its operational costs, provide fish feed and arrange for stocking of the fish. The agreement runs through September of 2007, but can be renewed for a longer period if agreed to by both agencies.
“The priorities for the Fish and Wildlife Service in this region focus on our people, partners and promoting our natural resources,” said Dr. Mamie A. Parker, the Service’s Northeast Regional Director. “I am proud of this successful partnership with Pennsylvania. A vacant part of a hatchery will be put to good use – to raise brook trout to benefit the public.”
The Commission intends to use the fish produced at the Allegheny National Fish Hatchery primarily in waters that flow through federal lands within Pennsylvania, including the Allegheny National Forest. Doing so will allow the Commission to utilize more of the adult trout raised at Commonwealth-owned hatcheries in other waters across the state. The Commission annually stocks more than 4,700 miles of streams and rivers along with some 121 lakes with adult trout. While the addition of fish from the Allegheny National Hatchery won’t necessarily impact the amount of waters the PFBC stocks, it will increase the total number of adult trout available for the statewide stocking program. In 2002, decreases in the amount of water available at state fish hatcheries coupled with the Commission’s management plan to reduce effluent discharged from its facilities led the agency to cut the number of adult trout produced from 5.2 million to 3.9 million. The PFBC will stock an estimated 4.1 million adult trout in 2003.
“Pennsylvania offers excellent fishing opportunities for a wide variety of species such as smallmouth and largemouth bass, muskellunge, walleye and striped bass. But for many Pennsylvania anglers, the fish they prize most is trout. We are fortunate in Pennsylvania to have robust wild trout populations, but for many waters natural reproduction alone is not enough to support recreational angling. That’s where stocking comes into play,” said PFBC Executive Director Peter A. Colangelo.
“With the need to reduce the number of adult trout produced at state hatcheries, we’ve been working to identify other opportunities to meet the demand by Pennsylvania anglers for trout stockings. From the time I first approached the Fish and Wildlife Service earlier this year, Fred Griffiths, Dr. Parker and the National Director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, Steve Williams, have all been very supportive of a joint project and I greatly appreciate their efforts to bring this agreement to reality. This cooperative venture furthers the mission of both agencies and will provide a tangible benefit to Pennsylvania’s trout anglers.”
The PFBC operates 14 state-owned fish culture stations across Pennsylvania; eight are involved in trout production. Faced with limited funding to upgrade the facilities – some of which are more than 100 years old – the Commission under Colangelo’s leadership has been exploring alternatives for its adult trout stocking programs. In addition to the cooperative agreement with the USFWS, the PFBC is currently exploring the feasibility of purchasing trout from private commercial growers and is pursuing a pilot project to raise trout in a hatchery utilizing treated abandoned mine drainage as a water source.