By Craig Springer/USFWS

History begets the future. The past is the prologue, and the heritage of the last 135 years of fisheries conservation sets the stage for the time to come.

The mid 19th century saw many changes in United States, and chief among them was a growing concern for our natural resources. Thinkers of the day began to see our natural resources not as an inexhaustible commodity, but as treasures worth conserving.

Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau set the philosophical foundations of conservation. Pioneer conservationist, George Perkins Marsh, anticipated the concepts of ecology in his 1864 book, Man & Nature.

In 1871, the growing concern over our natural resources was made evident in a Congressional resolution. In the first piece of legislation recognizing a federal role in fisheries conservation, the 41st Congress passed the Joint Resolution for the Protection and Preservation of the Food Fishes of the Coast of the United States.

The resolution recognized “the most valuable food fishes of the coast and the lakes of the United States are rapidly diminishing in number, to the public injury, and so as materially to affect the interests of trade and commerce.”
President Grant was given authority “to appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from among the civil officers or employees of the government, one person of proved scientific and practical acquaintance with the fishes of the coast, to be commissioner of fish and fisheries, to serve without additional salary.”
And thus, the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries was created - - the forerunner of today’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. And to lead the charge as the first Commissioner, President Grant appointed Spencer Fullerton Baird, who at the time was the Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.
Baird was a highly regarded scientist, mentioned in the same breath as names more well-known. Baird’s scientific work influenced a future president. Theodore Roosevelt wrote: “My chief interests were scientific. When I entered college, I was devoted to out-of-doors natural history, and my ambition was to be a scientific man of the Audubon, or Wilson, or Baird, or Coues type — a man like Hart Merriam.”
The new Fish Commissioner set up an office in his New England home, working without pay. His initial charge was to assess the condition of fish populations and habitats, and find remedial measures to problems - - a charge not unlike that performed today by USFWS fish biologists. Baird initially studied Atlantic salmon and striped bass. A year later he was given another charge: study and promote fish culture. Toward these ends, Baird worked in partnership with fish commissioners from the respective states; Baird advocated state involvement in fisheries and the proliferation of state fish commissions (future state DNRs) during his tenure stand as evidence.

In 1872, Baird sought the input of state fish commissions and the American Fish Culture Association (known today as the American Fisheries Society), as to how to carry out the wishes of Congress. From that meeting, Baird directed scientist Livingston Stone to spawn California salmon eggs for distribution elsewhere.
In September 1872, Stone established the first federal hatchery near the mouth of the McCloud River. Stone’s report to Baird read: “We at last discovered a spring stream, flowing a thousand gallons a second . . . and on the morning of September 1, 1872, the hatching-works of the first salmon-breeding station lf the United States was located on this stream.” Stone’s hatching-works became the first National Fish Hatchery and remained in operation until 1937. Today the facility lies entombed beneath the surface of Lake Shasta.
The U.S. Fish Commission evolved into today’s U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, taking its current name in 1939. A great deal has changed since Baird’s time. Conservation problems have become more complex, but fisheries management is still an integral part of the USFWS, with science and technology casting fisheries management into future. Scientists are engaged in their work across the country at 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices, nine Fish Health Centers, and seven Fish Technology Centers. These professionals carry the mantle of 135 years of fisheries conservation - - descending from the oldest organized conservation effort in our Nation’s history.

If you have questions about this article, email Craig_Springer@fws.gov