Just received this on the hatchery budget....

[WarrenP]

Just passing this on....

Just revealed today, report language on mitigation hatcheries. Good, although the the last sentence is a little confusing. I'll try and get greater clarity. feel free to circulate. It is expected to be passed today and signed into law.

Thanks for all your good work and Happy Holidays to you.

Fisheries and Aquatic Resource Conservation.- The bill includes $135,534,000 for Fisheries and
Aquatic Resource Conservation. National Fish Hatchery System Operations is funded at $46,149,000.
The conferees have restored the proposed $3,388,000 shortfall in the budget for mitigation hatchery operations and critical supplies. An additional $3,800,000 is appropriated elsewhere in this a ct for the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reimburse the Service. Together, these amounts fully fund mitigation
hatcheries operated by the Service for the Corps, Tennessee Valley Authority, Bureau of Reclamation's
Central Utah Project and the Bonneville Power Administration. The conferees support efforts by the
Service to recover costs of programs that are conducted to mitigate the environmental effects of other
Federal partners. However, future budget requests must ensure that Federal partners have committed to
make sufficient funding available to reimburse the Service before the Service proposes to eliminate
funding for mitigation hatcheries so that operations at these hatcheries are not disrupted.

[John_N]

Warren-

That sounds like good news, and certainly how we all hoped this funding chess match would end. Is there a link to a press release or anything that had the information you cited? I'd love to forward that to some other folks I know that were concerned about this issue. Thanks for the update.

[WarrenP]

John,

I received that information in an e-mail from a very good friend of mine that lives up around Nashville and holds some sort of position with TU. He keeps me updated on what is going on with the trout program. I am sure he would not mine if you sent him an e-mail and asked him for that information. rogerhamiter@netzero.net