Here is an article which came out today in the LA Daily News:

Los Angeles Daily News


Cogdill pushes fish bill
Measure again aims to counter cuts
By Bill Becher
Special to the Daily News


Wednesday, March 30, 2005 - California's fish hatchery system, already reeling from budget cutbacks, suffered a major blow when $4 million of expected funding evaporated after the state lost a lawsuit over tideland oil revenues.

Officials say this means that trout hatchery production will fall 19 percent this year.

The hatchery system is in a "death spiral," according to Assemblyman Dave Cogdill, R-Modesto, whose district includes Mono County, where money spent by trout anglers forms an important part of the local economy.

Cogdill has re-introduced legislation to allocate one-third of sport fishing license revenues to the hatchery system. Similar legislation was narrowly defeated last year, but Cogdill was able to obtain support for an audit of how the DFG is spending angler's license fees. According to existing state law, the costs of nongame fish and wildlife programs should come from general funds, not fishing license revenues.

But the DFG interprets the law broadly, insisting it spends anglers' money properly and that many programs other than hatcheries benefit the fishing public.

The audit report is due in June. Cogdill hopes to use the results to fine tune his bill and broaden its support by making sure that allocating money to hatcheries doesn't come at the expense of wild trout programs and other projects that also directly benefit anglers.

Cogdill said his legislation would help "realign" the mission of Fish and Game and get it back to the basics, which he defines as seeing that the license fees provide a viable fishing experience.

That experience has deteriorated in recent years, according to Cogdill.

One hatchery employee who did not want to be identified agreed.

"They're promising a Mercedes and delivering a Volkswagen," he said.

Hatchery employees say the DFG has a bias in favor of allocating money to biodiversity programs and not the hatchery system.

"That's absolutely not true," said Sonke Mastrup, the DFG's deputy director for wildlife and inland fisheries, who says his department has simply been given more jobs to do than it has money to accomplish.

"Do we work on producing another pound of trout or work on saving the stream?" Mastrup said.

He added that angler wants have to be matched with biological realities in a state where costs are skyrocketing.

Cogdill believes that although DFG officials won't admit it, this bias against the hatchery system does exist.

"It's pretty hard to match up their rhetoric with what's actually going on," he said.

The issue is also one of fairness according to Cogdill.

"Why should anglers be the sole support of an environmental policy that benefits everyone in the state?" Cogdill said.

According to DFG figures, sport fishing license revenues, between $48 and $49 million a year from 2000 to 2003, jumped in 2004 to more than $58 million, when fees were increased. This $6 million increase should be enough to make up for the loss of other funding say anglers, but according to Mastrup this money will have to be spent on increased workers' compensation claims and other costs of running the DFG.

The DFG has not taken an official position on the hatchery bill and would prefer focusing on making the hatchery system more efficient according to Mike Wintemute, deputy director of communications. Rather than look at individual hatcheries, the DFG should examine the entire hatchery system, including the possibility of producing a greater number of fish from fewer hatcheries and transporting them a greater distance using newer technology.

"Planting and growing smarter, not harder," said Mastrup, describing that approach.

He said that, although no hatcheries will be closed in the current fiscal year, after that anything is possible, including mothballing some facilities.

"We still love fishermen, in spite of what it may look like," Mastrup said.

Brad Willis, who works at the Mojave River Hatchery and is a union representative for rank and file DFG employees, supports the Cogdill bill.

"Fish and Game can afford to do this," he said.

Willis believes that the DFG administration is predisposed to closing hatcheries and he doesn't buy the proposal to make the system more efficient.

"Last year they wanted to close Hot Creek, which produces a third of the eggs for all the other hatcheries," Willis said. "How efficient is that?"

He said that most hatcheries already run at full capacity and that although trout can be transported long distances, it is very hard on the fish.

Willis has created a Web site at www.friendsofcaliforniahatcheries.org to rally support for the Cogdill bill.

Bill Becher covers the outdoors for the Daily News. He can be reached at billbecher@yahoo.com
__________________



James "Brad" Willis
CSEA Bargaining Unit 11 Negotiating Council
Mojave River Hatchery
Victorville,CA
mojavekroc@msn.com or
jwillis@dfg.ca.gov