A local fish hatchery, opened in 1938, is in danger of shutting down. Students at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry are intent on keeping it open.

The Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery has stocked 100 miles of streams and 10,000 acres of ponds with fish since it opened. If the hatchery closes, New York will move in to run it. A state take-over would mean significantly fewer fish in Onondaga County waters, said Walt Zelie, park superintendent at the hatchery.

The hatchery’s problems began on Sept. 15 when Onondaga County Executive Joannie Mahoney, a Republican, announced that the facility was cut from the 2010 draft budget. The legislature will vote on the final budget Oct. 14.

If the hatchery closes down, the state will take over stocking local streams, resulting in a significant reduction in the number of fish available, Zelie said.

‘The state would stock, but less than we currently do,’ he said. ‘They wouldn’t stock fish as big as ours and not all of the streams that we stock would get stocked.’

Because of the budget cut, the hatchery had to reduce its staff from four employees to two. Four to 12 ESF students will work at the hatchery to fill the removed positions, said Neil Ringler, dean of research at ESF.

ESF plans to have students intern at the hatchery to fill the places of the cut full-time positions. Students will also help to develop new methods of operations and design for future facility improvements.

The students will receive credit hours for their intern work starting in January. ESF’s biology and natural history interpretation programs could have the opportunity to develop the nature trails at the hatchery by installing information boards detailing the surrounding ecosystem for visitors.

The engineering and landscape architecture programs will help with the $1.7 million in improvements needed over the next few years. They will help with rearing, a process to keep young fish alive during the renovations.

The partnership between the school and the hatchery will allow students in the aquatics and fisheries science major to use the resources for term projects and field programs, Ringler said.

ESF is planning to possibly develop new aquaculture courses that wouldn’t have been possible without the aid of the hatchery, Ringler said.

The hatchery and ESF have worked together before the budget cut. Students helped stock streams with fish and volunteered at the hatchery’s annual Honeywell Sportsmen’s Days, held in the fall. The hatchery has also provided fish for ESF research projects.

Along with ESF, the Friends of Carpenter’s Brook Fish Hatchery are helping to solve the financial problems. The local non-profit donated $10,000 after learning of the budget cut.

‘The group was formed in 1994, after the last time the legislature talked about closing the facility,’ said Zelie, park superintendent at Carpenter’s Brook Hatchery. ‘They were in charge of making improvements to the facilities that the state couldn’t do.’

The non-profit group plans to use state grants to fund capital improvements that will need to be made within the next few years. The grants will be used to fix buildings and construct new buildings as well as update some of the hatching ponds.

ESF plans to advertise opportunities at the hatchery during class registration, Ringler said. The college also hopes that recruiting volunteers will be easier after the program is up and running next year.

‘It’s been a wonderful resource for our region,’ Ringler said. ‘We have a very good set of fishing streams that yield tremendous economic benefits as well as being a wonderful recreational resource.’

jlsiart@syr.edu

Published on September 30, 2009 at 12:00 pm