VT F&W Backs off Proposed Hatchery Closure
It should come as no surprise that Vermont Fish and Wildlife and the governors office backed off their proposal to close the Salisbury fish hatchery. To be fair, this was pretty much a foregone conclusion as the likelihood that VT was actually going to close this hatchery was low.
In fact, the Salisbury hatchery should not have been proposed for closure as it was the most disruptive action on the table. Doing so was going to have far more of a negative impact than stocking-centric VT anglers and trout NGOs who needed the eggs produced for their outreach programs were going to stand for.
F&W should have proposed closing a smaller hatchery if they truly wanted to cut costs and try to wean themselves off their heavy reliance on stocked fish. If I were the governor I would have kicked back the proposal and sent folks back to the drawing board to find a more reasonable and less disruptive proposal.
So once again stocking trumps all and sportsmen including hunters — some of whom do not fish, warmwater anglers, and those who pursue wild native trout will be forced to subsidize the stocked-trout angling masses via a license fee increase.
Shame on everyone involved in this fiasco, we once again snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.