Nine fish hatcheries in danger of closing

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Army Corps of Engineers are trying to figure out a way to keep the Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery in Southern Kentucky open next year despite cuts in the service's budget, James Bruggers of The Courier-Journal in Louisville reports. (Hatchery photo)

Similar efforts may be under way around the country. "The issue came to light earlier this year, when President Barack Obama's proposed budget for fiscal year 2011 cut $6.5 million from the fisheries budget, potentially dooming as many as nine hatcheries across the nation," Bruggers writes.

The Kentucky hatchery is just below Wolf Creek Dam, a Corps facility that impounds Lake Cumberland. It produces about 1 million rainbow, brook and brown trout annually with a budget of $900,000. Ron Brooks of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife told Bruggers that the Corps offered to cover 80 percent of the cost of fish released below its dams." He added, "That could mean about 85,000 fewer fish might be produced, but it could keep the hatchery open."  (Read more)

The Cumberland River below the dam is a major trout fishery supplied by the hatchery, which also supplies fisheries in Georgia, North Carolina, and Indiana, the hatchery website reports.