Contacts
Doug Aloisi,
608-689-2605
Media are
invited to enjoy a day alongside the Mississippi River with excited youth
as they gain fishing tips from the experts, and then put them into practice
in a stocked hatchery pond.
The event
will be from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. at Genoa National Fish Hatchery in Genoa,
Wis. Interested media should contact Doug Aloisi, hatchery manager, at
608-689-2605, to arrange a site visit.
You can
expect to see roughly 100 area youth ages 8 to 12, and their parents, as
they rotate among four different learning stations where they will learn
about different types of tackle and when to use it, how to make jigs, fish
habitat and how to use it to catch more fish, and boating safety. After
an hour of learning they will be set loose on a hatchery pond stocked with
800 10- to 14-inch rainbow trout to test their newfound fishing knowledge.
This is
the third year of an annual event sponsored by the Friends of the Upper
Mississippi River Fisheries Services and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
offices that they support -- the LaCrosse Fish Health Center, the La Crosse
Fishery Resource Office and the Genoa National Fish Hatchery. There are
3 FWS fishery offices in the La Crosse area because od its proximity to
the Mississippi River and the diverse fishery populations and habitats
the big river supports.
Genoa National
Fish Hatchery has been in existence since 1932 with the creation of the
Upper Mississippi River Wildlife and Fish Refuge. Its mission is working
with partners to restore and maintain fish and other aquatic resources
at self-sustaining levels for the benefit of the American public.
The La Crosse
Fish Health Center was founded in 1962 and services the entire Great Lakes/Big
Rivers Region of the upper Midwest, providing fish health screening and
wild fish health surveys on selected wild fish populations.
The La Crosse Fishery Resource Office was established in 1995 to conserve,
enhance and protect aquatic ecosystems in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois
and to help natural resource managers from state, tribal, and federal agencies,
as well as concerned citizens involved in achieving this mission.
Since 1871,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries Program has played a vital
role in conserving and managing native fish and other aquatic resources.
The Fisheries Program is re-focusing its efforts on achieving its long-term
strategic vision of protecting the health of aquatic habitats restoring
fish and other aquatic resources, and providing opportunities for the American
public to enjoy the benefits of healthy aquatic resources. For more information
about the Fisheries Program in the Midwest, go to http://midwest.fws.gov/fisheries.
The U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for
conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their
habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service
manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses
545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special
management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 63 Fish
and Wildlife Management offices and 81 ecological services field stations.
The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species
Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant
fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and
helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees
the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions
of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish
and wildlife agencies.
-FWS-
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