When I was in the Third or Forth Grade we did a feild trip, to this Fish Hatchery and the tour was one of the most fabulous days that I had in those early years at school. In my younger days at school I didn't get along to well with teh conforming of the regular classes. I was so messed up that they placed me into a pecil class for Gifted and weird chldren. I accelled in that enviroment.
Well getting back to the Hatchery I want to make a note see when they will make tours available to the public, because this is something that I want to see again!!
I am sorry that they are closing it down for a much larger facility.
BSRancher...
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DFG: ëWe fully intendí to keep Whitney open
Historic hatchery will likely no longer produce trout but instead remain open as tourist attraction
By Jon Klusmire
The Inyo The Inyo Register Staff
The Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery will enter a new phase in its 90-year life when it makes the transition from a fish-producing facility to an educational attraction situated in a historic building in a beautiful setting. The hatchery building and grounds will remain open to the public and the Department of Fish and Game will remain committed to helping a local nonprofit group keep the venerable site a community treasure and transform it into an interesting and informative asset for visitors and locals, according the DFG. Looking at the bigger picture, thanks to the implementation of Assembly Bill 7, the DFG has about twice as much money budgeted for its hatchery program, will be hiring more permanent and part-time hatchery help, and will be spending millions on capital improvements at two local hatcheries. Over time, DFG hatcheries will be producing tons more fish, literally, to place in streams and lakes in the Eastern Sierra and across the state, noted Greg Hurner, deputy director of legislative and external
a affairs for DFG. Under the terms of AB 7, one third of sport fishing license revenue will be earmarked for hatcheries and other fishing related programs. Those license fees will start accumulating in the special Hatcheries and Inland Fisheries Fund on July 1. The fate of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery aside, implementing AB 7 ìwill be a boon to Inyo and Mono counties and the Eastern Sierra,î said Hurner. ìWeíve got $15 million for hatcheries,î which will almost double the current DFG hatchery budget. With all that money slated to flow into the hatchery system, Inyo County officials and anglers were outraged when they heard the news that the DFG had decided to eliminate funding for the hatchery operation at Mt. Whitney, and have mounted a campaign to get Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to restore the operating funds to the hatchery. It was inconceivable to the county that the hatchery would ìclose,î and closing the Mt. Whitney Hatchery is also inconceivable to the DFG. ìThereís no way weíre going to lock the gate
s a d walk awayî from the Mt. Whitney Hatchery, said Hurner. ìWe fully intend to have Mt. Whitney open to the public,î Hurner said. The hatchery ìis much too valuable to the community and itís a beautiful spot, itís just gorgeous.î While the 90-year old hatchery building is a stunning sight ñ which is probably why a photo of the hatchery is on the cover of the DFGís AB 7 Implementation Plan ñ itís not exactly the best facility available to be producing fish. With the DFG now being prodded to dramatically increase the number of trout its hatcheries produce, the decision to move the trout egg incubation and handling chores previously done at Mt. Whitney to other hatcheries came down to a decision about how to ìmost efficiently meet the goals of AB 7,î said Hurner. That process included determining ìwhere to invest to meet the production goals in AB 7,î he said. Those production goals, measured in tons of fish produced a year, ìare pretty aggressive,î Hurner said, and will take some aggressive moves by DFG to m
eet. When it came to deciding which hatcheries could be expanded to meet those goals, the existing limitations of the Mt. Whitney Hatchery made the DFG decide to invest and expand other hatcheries and cut back on the fish operation at Mt. Whitney. The biggest problem at Mt. Whitney is water. The hatcheryís water supply has been infected by whirling disease, which attacks adolescent (fingerling) trout and destroys their bones and brains. The appearance of whirling disease prompted the DFG to use Mt. Whitney only for egg propagation and production, since the disease does not effect eggs or fry. Nor does the disease attack mature trout, so the hatcheryís broodstock, the females that produce the eggs, have not been affected. However, the ìdisease issueî means the DFG could not, for example, build more raceways or ponds at Mt. Whitney to raise fish from fingerlings to ìcatchableî trout. Thatís not the case at both the Blackrock and Fish Springs hatcheries, however. Both of those facilities will see large-scale ca
pital improvements from the money generated by AB 7. The Blackrock Hatchery, which will take over the egg operations once performed at Mt. Whitney, is scheduled for $1.4 million of improvements in the next five years. A new hatchery building, two new raceways for fish-rearing (an $880,000 investment) and improvements to the employee housing on-site are planned. Trout production at Blackrock should jump from the current 158,000 pound a year to 180,000 pounds a year, according to the implementation plan. The Fish Springs Hatchery will be getting the biggest overhaul of any hatchery in the state, with $1.7 million in improvements planned. Anew water well (estimated to cost $850,000), new hatchery building, parking lots and numerous other improvements are on tap. Those improvements should allow the Fish Springs operation to double the amount of fish produced, from the current 300,000 pounds a year to 600,000 pounds by 2008. County officials expressed concern about expanding those two hatcheriesí production becau
se their water is suppled by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power wells. Pumping more water could cause additional complications in the Big Pine wellfield, which is currently bumping up against illegal ìwater miningî limits. However, Hurner said the water is circulated through hatchery raceways, so additional raceways at Fish Springs might not necessarily automatically trigger more total water use. But the water issue will be explored in greater detail in the future. The Hot Creek Hatchery, in Mono County, is also being counted on to increase production from 307,000 pounds of fish to 500,000 pounds, but no capital improvements are planned for the hatchery. The local hatcheries will also see a jump in the number of permanent and seasonal workers, under the implementation plan. The Mt. Whitney/Blackrock operations are the exception to that general rule. Full-time positions will be reduced, but the ìtemporary helpî budget will jump from about $1,500 to $11,000 a year. Hot Creek and Fish Springs will add ab
out two full-time positions at each hatchery. The budget for seasonal help will jump to $32,500 at Fish Springs, up from $3,200, and also top $32,500 at Hot Springs, up from the current outlay of $6,600. Although money will be streaming to other hatcheries, DFG has no plans to abandon the Mt. Whitney Hatchery. The department has employee housing and offices located on the site, noted Hurner, and has invested more than a $1.2 million in the historic building and grounds in the past several years. The department ìabsolutely will move forwardî and work with the Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery to help the nonprofit group reach its goal of turning the hatchery into an educational attraction focusing on the Eastern Sierraís natural resources, said Hurner. Hurner said he has also been talking to Assemblymen Dave Cogdill, who sponsored AB 7, and Bill Maze, who sponsored the legislation creating the partnership between DFG and the friends group. Hurner said, despite public comments to the contrary, the DFG i
s serious about implementing the mandates in AB 7. The bill passed through the state Legislature with overwhelming support, he noted, and was signed by the governor, who also made available additional funding to the DFG so it could implement AB 7 without cutting any other programs. The initial AB 7 implementation plan could be adjusted over time, Hurner added, to make sure DFG meets the billís goal to provide more trout for anglers in the Eastern Sierra and across the state.
©2006 The Inyo Register
Copyright © 2006 The Inyo Register
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