Funding for Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchey

[pgail66]

Bad News; but it could have been worse. And remember, FWS don't have the final say. Congress does.

This is what Fish and Wildlife Service Washington office says they are going to do for FY 2012 in my own words, because I've only heard this orally from a hatchery employee who heard it from his hatchery manager. If I can get this in writing later, I'll put it out.

They will keep all southeastern hatcheries operating with no reduction in force (no layoffs) through FY 2012 (October 2011 through September 2012), however, they will not produce any fish for TVA waters, if TVA does not agree to pay reimbursement in FY 2012. They will produce only 80% of the fish for COE waters, if COE pays only 80% of the requested reimbursement (COE will see a 20% reduction from current levels). Keeping these hatcheries operating w/o reimbursements, however, is not sustainable, and hatchery closures and reductions in force are expected going into FY 2013 if full reimbursements are not agreed upon before then.

Hatcheries will lose deferred maintenance and other capital outlays. Those budgets will be taken away and applied to their operating budgets.

To put this in real simple terms, FWS proposes putting mitigation hatcheries on welfare for one year. I say welfare, because, basically, the Service is going to give them enough funds to employ everyone and for all utilities, but they won't really be producing enough product to justify all that labor and all that infrastructure. However, the hatcheries staying open, with all their folks is better than closure, because, if they close, it is likely we would lose them forever. Another advantage of hatcheries staying open is that they will all still be producing fish for mitigation and non-mitigation that is paid for. If Dale Hollow had closed, for instance, Tennessee could have lost the 80% COE fish; and all the state production they have been doing, even though those portions of production would have been reimbursed. This way, at least Tennessee will get the fish that are paid for.

Now remember, this is still just FWS plan based on a proposed budget that has not been approved yet. We can keep fighting. The information I got was that there is certain congressman in KY, TN, and GA that are pushing hard to get the base funds back in. There is also a certain senator in AR that has raised all kinds of heck with FWS, Washington office staff. My point is that all the public support and all the hell-raising by the state's is making a difference. We need to just push that much harder getting the word out to the media and to get folks to contact their congresspersons.

FWS has already backed off their original budget proposal due to the pressure put on them by Congressmen, governors, and wildlife directors from each affected state. It will take some of that $6.3 million they had cut from the National Fish Hatchery System to keep all these hatcheries open, so they have already conceded some ground. We need to work to put pressure on all parties to work this out before October (FWS, COE, and TVA), and get them all to concede ground for full production.

[pgail66]

Hey Boone. I'm on three discussion boards. Fishin.com; FishingTN; and ETF (east Tennessee fishing). I'm a little strapped for time right now to register at other boards, but feel free to copy and paste. If you're worried what I've said is incorrect, you can simply state that it's what you've heard from someone else.

I'm working with about three media outlets and helping people contact their congressmen, working 40 hrs, and trying to put up a storage building. I don't think I want to start posting and monitoring other boards right now, but feel free to grab up anything I write and use it.

[pgail66]

Front page on the printed newspaper: Knoxville News Sentinel. Wednesday.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2011/ju...l-budget-cuts/

Another TV spot in Nashville. Channel 5 (CBS affiliate)

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/14...ish-hatcheries

Story also hit Clarksville newspaper and five other places in Tennessee yesterday.

[pgail66]

I know some Kentuckians come on to this site. Someone on another board asked me to look up Kentucky, Congressional contacts and post them, so I did. I felt like I should put them on here as well. Here is all the contact info. again on one post:

To help give maximum support for hatchery funding in Tennessee or Kentucky (depending on where you live) make sure you contact all three of your representatives. You should call, write, or email both of your senators and your one House representative.

If you don't know your House Rep or your four digit extension to your zip code, go to the bottom of this post to get that information.

Kentucky Instructions
A good message to send both of your senators in Kentucky would be: Please support a full funding solution for Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery (NFH), so that Kentucky will not lose about one and half million fish per year that are currently stocked in our waters. These fish provide a great social and economic benefit to our state and bring lots of tourism dollars to our state. The cost to produce these fish at Wolf Creek NFH is minimal in comparison to the economic output that is created by their operation. Send this message or one of your own to both senators. Just click on each link and start filling out the form to email your senators.
http://mcconnell.senate.gov/public/i...?p=ContactForm
http://paul.senate.gov/?p=contact

A good message to send your one House Representative would be: Please support a full funding solution for Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery. The production of fish at that federal facility produces many fish that go in waters in our district. The regular stocking of these fish in our district waters create lots of economic activity, support many jobs, provide a great social benefit to our district's citizens, and bring lots of tourist to our district that spend alot of money to fish. Please send this message or one of your own to only your representative. Choose only your rep.; click on that link; and begin filling out the form. You will need your zip code and four digit extension:

https://whitfieldforms.house.gov/contact-form.shtml
http://chandler.house.gov/contact-form.shtml
http://guthrie.house.gov/index.cfm?s...tiontree=4,117
http://yarmuth.house.gov/index.cfm?s...ectiontree=124
http://halrogers.house.gov/Contact/ContactForm.htm
http://www.geoffdavis.house.gov/Contact/

Tennessee Instructions
To support Dale Hollow NFH and Erwin NFH in Tennessee, write both of your senators and only your representative.

A good message to send both your senators: Please support a full funding solution for Tennessee's two national fish hatcheries, so that Tennessee will not lose 1.3 million fish and 600,000 eggs per year from our state waters, and all the jobs and economic activity created by the stocking of those fish.Click on each Tennessee senator listed below and begin filling out the forms to send them a message.

http://corker.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=ContactMe
http://alexander.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Email


Once you've emailed both senators, now find your representative, and click on his or her link to send him or her an email. Just click and start filling out the form. You'll need your zip code and four digit extension. A good message to send your House Representative is: Please support a full funding solution for Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery, so that our district does not lose the many thousands of fish per year that are stocked in our districts waters. The continued stocking of these fish create alot of jobs in our district; provide a great social benefit to our citizens; and bring alot of tourism dollars into our district that drives many small business sales.

http://roe.house.gov/Contact/
https://desjarlais.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
http://duncan.house.gov/services/zip-auth.shtml
https://fleischmann.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
http://cooper.house.gov/index.php?op...=117&Itemid=61
https://black.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
http://blackburn.house.gov/contactform/
https://fincher.house.gov/contact-me/email-me
http://cohen.house.gov/index.php?opt...orm&Itemid=111

If you don't know your House Rep, go here. You need your zip code and four-digit extension.

https://writerep.hou...p/welcome.shtml

If you don't know your four-digit extension, go here:

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp

[pgail66]

To support Tennessee fishing, see earlier post that provide links to easily contact your three U.S. representatives. Please refer others to this site to get all TN anglers to call their congressmen.

Even though it is likely that all southeastern hatcheries will remain open until September of 2012, this is not the time to sit back. We will still lose many trout in Tennessee as soon as Congress passes a budget for 2012. When that will be, we don't know, but could be as soon as October. When this happens, we're looking at an approx. two-thirds cut in production at Dale Hollow NFH (about 960,000 trout).

Beyond September 2012, we're looking at up to 1.3 million trout lost for Tennessee waters, if it is decided that Dale Hollow NFH will be closed. Tennessee is in the worst political position for funding of all six hatcheries facing cuts in the southeast, because Dale Hollow produces about 58% of all its fish for TVA water-development projects. TVA has not agreed to reimburse Fish and Wildlife Service any monies for mitigation activities. Tennesseans should tell their congressmen that we want a full and permanent funding solution for Dale Hollow National Fish Hatchery. If that doesn't happen, trout fishing will be threatened every year in Tennessee. Congress must decide who is responsible for funding mitigation for TVA water-development projects. Right now, there is no legislation requiring any entity of the federal gov't to mitigate the loss of fish in federally-managed waters. Without this program being in writing, all entities can continue to pass the buck and leave us without the fish that are owed to us by the federal gov't.

[pgail66]

Politically and financially speaking, Tennessee fishermen are at much greater risk of losing trout fishing as a sport than the other states that are facing possible cuts in mitigation trout production in the southeast. This is why Tennesseans, more than any other state, must let each of our three congressmen know that we expect them to support the funding of our national fish hatcheries. Please see the post above that explains how to help. Particularly, it is Dale Hollow NFH that is at greatest risk of all six southeastern hatcheries that engage in mitigation activities. Without Dale Hollow NFH, Tennessee loses the capacity to produce 60% of the state's reared trout for stocking; a total of 1.2-1.3 million trout per year for Tennessee!

By far, Dale Hollow NFH has the highest percentage of trout produced for TVA-managed fisheries of the six hatcheries facing cuts. Erwin NFH produces some eggs for TVA, and Chattahoochee Forest NFH produces and stocks a small percentage for TVA, but Dale Hollow Produces about 58% of all it's production for TVA waters (as a percentage of weight grown). Unlike U.S. Army Core of Engineers (COE), TVA has not agreed to reimbursing any funds for growing mitigation fish; now or in the future. For the other five hatcheries, it is a very small amount of funding needed to fill in the gap for a full funding solution, because COE has agreed to pay 80% of the requested amount and future year negotiations look bright with respect to COE reimbursements. For Dale Hollow NFH, however, almost $600K a year is needed to cover the gap of non-reimbursed cuts to hatchery funding. This represents almost two-thirds of their operating budget. This makes the future of Dale Hollow NFH very bleak without congressional intervention into this dilemma.

The fact that only one state and one hatchery may be hurt additionally increases the chance that congress will not act, but it can be turned around if Tennesseans get all seven U.S. representatives that receive fish in their districts to support a solution and get both senators Alexander and Corker to support it's funding as well. That is enough political support to ensure permanent funding, but we need everyone to call, write or email all three of your representatives.