As Midwest floodwaters receded this June, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service brought aid to two northeast Iowa state hatcheries that spring flooding had damaged. Federal hatcheries nationwide provided trout to Big Springs and Manchester hatcheries after flooding caused the loss of around 220,000 fingerlings and 99,000 catchable-size trout. Service hatcheries in Wisconsin, Missouri, North Dakota, Montana, West Virginia and Pennsylvania provided the state hatcheries with more than 200,000 trout to help revive their production and rearing programs.

On June 8, 9-foot-high floodwaters blanketed Big Springs Hatchery in Elkader, Iowa. Floodwaters covered the outside raceways and filled hatchery buildings and offices. Forty miles south of Big Springs, silt and water rose to 6 inches above the floor, flooding outside raceways at a second Iowa hatchery in Manchester. The June flood was the third major flooding event in Iowa since 1990.

“The water came so fast, we lost everything inside,” said Mike Mason, hatchery chief, Iowa Department of Natural Resources. Floodwaters, with rainfall amounts at times exceeding 9 inches in 24 hours, inundated cities and towns throughout the Midwest. During the month of June, President Bush declared more than 100 counties in central and eastern Iowa and southwestern Wisconsin federal disaster areas. Flood damage caused the loss of more than 300,000 fingerlings and catchable-size trout at the Iowa hatcheries.

The first Service stations to respond to the hatcheries’ need for fish were Genoa NFH in Wisconsin and Neosho NFH in Missouri. Genoa NFH rerouted 21,000 rainbow trout from its ongoing forage program, while Neosho NFH sent an additional 10,000. “It takes between 12-15 months to grow the fish eggs to a catchable size, so it was important that the fish we sent were already established to speed up production,” said Doug Aloisi, Genoa NFH project leader.

Genoa NFH works with Iowa DNR hatcheries to restore native fish in the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. “We stock anything Genoa is short of, and Genoa does the same for us,” Mason said. Genoa NFH also raises rainbow trout fingerlings as a disease-free source of food for fish-hosts that support the restoration of freshwater mussel populations.

Garrison Dam NFH in North Dakota and Lamar NFH in Pennsylvania contributed 78,000 trout to the flood-damaged hatcheries. Federal fish hatcheries in West Virginia and Montana have also recently provided additional trout eggs to the Iowa state hatcheries.

 “It’s great to see Service rainbow trout hatcheries come together to help a state in need,” said Todd Turner, hatchery coordinator for the Service’s Midwest Region.

“We’re a small agency, so it’s nice to turn to Genoa and other hatcheries to develop solid mussel-conservation projects, like the endangered Higgin’s eye mussel program,” said Scott Gritters, a fisheries biologist with Iowa DNR. Neighboring state hatcheries in Nebraska, Illinois and South Dakota also contributed fish to the Big Springs and Manchester hatcheries to make up for lost production.

The combined contributions from federal and state hatcheries allowed Big Springs and Manchester to stock 80 percent of their fisheries resources this year. The efforts of staff at federal hatcheries across the country highlight the Service’s commitment to work with state agencies to recover and restore aquatic species in the Midwest.

The Service’s Fisheries Program has played a vital role in conserving America’s fishery resources for more than 130 years. Today it is a key partner with states, tribes, federal agencies, other Service programs and private interests in a larger effort to conserve fish and other aquatic resources.

For more information on the National Fish Hatchery System, visit http://www.fws.gov/fisheries/nfhs/.