"Our entire years production of rainbows has been lost," said Barbara Giesecke, hatchery manager. "Its very difficult to see all your work and effort and fish being washed away. The best thing we can do now is to clean up and start over.
It takes 16 months to grow rainbows to catchable size (10 inches and over), Giesecke noted, so the hatchery wont have rainbow trout to stock until May 2000. A population of 120,000 rainbow fingerlings survived in the hatchery tank room building used to hatch the fish. Also, several brood stock populations of endangered Gila trout were spared at the hatchery; the fish are held in separate buildings with an independent water supply that was not affected by the flood.
The main water supply for the hatcherys outdoor rainbow trout raceways was compromised, however, and may continue to be as long as the intense rains continue.
Hatchery employees and Mescalero residents, working with members of the Mescalero Hot Shot fire crew and employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, are beginning clean-up efforts at the hatchery. Agencies are also working with the Tribe to strengthen diversion barriers placed upstream of the hatchery after a fire in May burned over 3,000 acres of the Telephone Canyon watershed above the hatchery. Water runoff from the canyon supplies part of the water for the hatchery.
Because the watershed was severely impacted by the fire, diversion barriers and a large drainage ditch were constructed to route water around the hatchery in case of flooding. While the magnitude of Fridays downpour rendered these preventive measures ineffective for the hatcherys raceways, they did save its buildings from major damage.
The loss of rainbows at the hatchery will likely affect fishing programs at a dozen pueblos and Indian reservations in New Mexico: Isleta, Jemez, Mescalero, Nambe, Navajo, Picuris, San Ildefonso, San Juan, Sandia, Santa Clara, Tesuque, and Zia, as well as Fort Hood in Texas. The Fish and Wildlife Service is currently attempting to locate additional rainbow trout from other hatcheries to help make up for the loss.
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 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprised of more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries, 64 fish and wildlife management assistance offices and 78 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 Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state wildlife agencies.
