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Budget cuts to halve number of large trout from Montana hatchery
Montana’s largest fish hatchery will cut by half the number of large trout — 7 inches or larger — it will place in the state’s waters over the next two years as a result of the cuts to the Fisheries Division of Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks budget for 2018-2019.
February 1, 2018 By Liza Mayer
Montana’s largest fish hatchery will cut by half the number of large trout it will place in the state’s waters over the next two years due to budget cuts Big Springs Trout Hatchery, located in Lewistown, raises Yellowstone cutthroat, brown trout, and Kokanee salmon to an average of 4 to 8 inches and plants them in roughly 100 different waters throughout the state.
A $100,000 cut in the state’s fishing stocking program will mean fewer “coldwater fish, trout and salmon, of 7 inch or larger by 50 percent in 2018 and 2019 [but] this won’t affect the number of smaller fish, in the 4-inch range,” Eileen Ryce, administrator of the Fisheries Division, told Great Falls Tribune.
That’s a 50-percent reduction in “catchable” coldwater fish such as trout and salmon, which in the state’s fish stocking program is defined as rainbow trout greater than 7 inches, raised at hatcheries, are released in reservoirs to bolster fish populations.
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