ELIZABETHTOWN - Essex County is considering closing its fish hatchery, and some anglers are concerned the move could hurt the local economy.
"You will see a significant decrease in the amount of fishing tourism throughout the county," said Ken Calil, a board member with the Tri-Lakes chapter of Trout Unlimited, "not just on the West Branch of the AuSable but throughout the county. You'll see less money spent at hotels, grocery stores, all kinds of places - campgrounds, you name it."
The Essex County Fish Hatchery, located in Crown Point, raises three types of trout: brook, brown and rainbow. It is projected the fish hatchery will cost the county $281,000 in 2011. It employs three people: a director and two technicians. The hatchery opened under state ownership in 1928 and was taken over by the county in 1982.
The decision to close it or not rests with the county Board of Supervisors. Supervisors are working on the 2011 budget now and trying to find places to save money to reduce a projected $7 million deficit and avoid a steep property tax increase - possible hikes of more than 30 percent have been mentioned as possible if nothing is done. The 2011 budget will take effect Jan. 1; the county passed its current budget in December last year.
The county board has rejected requests to invest in improvements at the hatchery, such as new water lines, over the past decade or so, county Manager Dan Palmer said Monday. He said it would now require about $500,000 in work in future years to keep the hatchery running. This was one of the factors in his recommendation to close it, he said - the county has invested in recent years in some other facilities it could possibly close, such as the county fairgrounds in Westport.
Wilmington Supervisor Randy Preston said he had originally thought he would "wholeheartedly, if reluctantly, go along" with closing the hatchery, but he changed his mind after reading the 2007 New York Statewide Angler survey published by the DEC in 2009. It stated that anglers spent $12,671,592 related to fishing trips in Essex County; the county ranked sixth in New York. Preston said this brings in roughly $400,000 in sales tax revenue, not counting the occupancy tax revenue generated by the anglers who stay in hotels.
Preston said he doesn't fish but knows about its importance to Wilmington - the West Branch of the AuSable, one of the state's most popular trout-fishing rivers, runs through his town. Preston said many people come to the county for the larger fish produced at the hatchery rather than the 8- to 10-inch ones produced at the state's hatchery. He said he thinks the hatchery could be run more efficiently but that closing it would do more harm than good.
What concerns some in the fishing tourism industry is that it could be difficult to replace the county's hatchery fish. Critics of the potential closure say the state Department of Environmental Conservation doesn't have money to bolster its stocking programs and that the private sector would be hard-pressed to raise enough money to buy trout from other hatcheries.
"If we were to replace each and every fish that (Essex County Fish Hatchery Manager) Steve LaMere worked hard to grow every year, last year those fish would have cost us $249,000 plus delivery," said Jerry Bottcher, owner of the Hungry Trout Resort in Wilmington.
This spring, the county hatchery stocked about 50,000 trout, with the majority of those being in excess of 12 inches, some as large as 20 inches long.
By comparison, the DEC stocked about 147,500 yearling trout in Essex County, according to its website. Of those, all but 2,500 are under 9.5 inches in length.
Some fear the loss of those trophy trout might lead to anglers taking their rods and wallets elsewhere, which would cost the county and its businesses revenue.
A 2009 Leisure Travel Information Study conducted by the Lake Placid-Essex County Convention and Visitors Bureau also showed fishing is a key element to the local economy. That report claimed that between 2004 and 2008, 17.2 percent of visitors who came to Essex County fished while they were here.
"We understand that Essex County has some very serious budget issues," Bottcher said. "But there are few line items in their budget that have the return on their investment that the county hatchery does. Before closing it down, I would suggest they put in place a very, very secure alternative, because not only would they be losing sales tax money, but they would drastically affect the (tradition) of family fishing in this county."
