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.
