Activities

Hard Water Fishing Rules! Kids Enjoy a Great Day Out on the Ice at the Genoa Hatchery 

                     
Local area youth ages 6-12 and their parents enjoyed a great day of ice fishing at the Genoa (WI) National Fish Hatchery in February.  After a cold January, 183 people assembled at the hatchery to hit the ice, trying to catch some fish and break out of the winter doldrums.  The event was sponsored by the Friends Group of the 3 La Crosse area Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries offices, the La Crosse National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office (NFWCO), the Genoa National Fish Hatchery, and the La Crosse Fish Health Center.  The Friends of the Upper Mississippi River Fisheries Services (FUMFS) supplied ice fishing expertise, volunteer help and a light lunch out on the ice for the participants.  This was the first time the event was held at the hatchery, and in mid-January, 1,000 9 inch rainbow trout were stocked in Pond 9, which had been filled and allowed to freeze.

Al Hammes receives Genoa NFH Volunteer of the Year Honors

Susan Houlihan receives 2009 Conservation Steward Award from Jenny Walker Bailey. Sarah Bauer photo

LaCrosse Area Fisheries Offices Recognize Outstanding Volunteers for 2009

The three LaCrosse area fisheries offices (Genoa National Fish Hatchery, LaCrosse National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, and the LaCrosse Fish Health Center) share more than just their cooperative Friends Group.  They also came together this month to cooperatively honor their Friends and Volunteers that helped each office accomplish its conservation goals in 2008.  Each volunteer is essential in helping the offices accomplish much more than would be possible by just relying on existing staff and resources.  Friends and volunteers also help lead through example by spreading a conservation stewardship message throughout their community.  Their accomplishments are seen to be "making a difference" through grass roots efforts that anyone is able to participate in. One such example is Alan Hammes of Stoddard Wisconsin.  Al, as he is known to the crew at the Genoa hatchery, just retired with over 35 years of service as a rural mail deliverer in the Genoa area.  He has delivered the hatchery mail to us for years, and also takes one week of vacation time off every spring, to help the station with its spring wild broodstock collection efforts on the mighty Mississippi River.  He also has been very active and involved with the station's Kid's Fishing and Ice Fishing Days.  Al hopes to be able to now spend more time at the station in the springtime, doing what he loves out on the River.  Susan Houlihan, middle school teacher at the Southern Bluffs Middle School in LaCrosse also received the Conservation Steward Award of 2009.  This award, just initiated this year, honors Susan for her work in developing an outdoor classroom curriculum using a wetland area at the Genoa hatchery as its learning center.  This 20+ acre wetland is being used as a place where concepts and fundamentals of wetland ecology can be taught, and unstructured playtime in the outdoors can also be incorporated as part of the experience.   Through her efforts, the station hopes to be able to "pass the torch" to the next generation of conservation stewards.  Friends Group President Fred Kusch also received recognition for his dedicated service as President of the group for the last several years.  Many other Friends and volunteers were also honored for their dedication to the area's fish and wildlife resources.  We truly can't do it without them!

- Doug Aloisi

Genoa News and Notes gets a New Look for the New Year

Since July 2003 Genoa NFH staff has complied their monthly Accomplishment Reports into a newsletter known as the Genoa News and Notes.  To date, a total of 56 News and Notes have published using Microsoft Word ® and have been distributed via e-mail to an ever growing list of recipients across the nation.  In order to keep our newsletter recipients interested in the activities of the hatchery, we decided to give our newsletter a fresh look for the New Year.  To brighten up the newsletter and make it more appealing to the reader, Microsoft Publisher® was added to the hatchery computers allowing a wider range of options for designing our newsletter. 

In addition to the new look, the Genoa News and Notes now can be found at the La Crosse Library in La Crosse Wisconsin.  Thanks to members of the Friends of the Upper Mississippi Fisheries Services speaking at different events, informing the public about the activities from three U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service Offices (Genoa NFH, La Crosse National Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, and the La Crosse Fish Health), the La Crosse Library has started to receive the Genoa News and Notes and add them to the collection of information about the Upper Mississippi River.  Employees from the Library said that our newsletter would give a great local feel to the growing collection. 

- Tony Brady