05-17-2012, 08:36 PM
[font "Times New Roman"]Hello all. My name is Paul Birdsey and I am the Coldwater Sportfish Coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. I have been following this thread for some time and I thought I might answer a few of the questions/comments that have been posted here in an effort to let everyone know how fishery management decisions are made.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The Division of Wildlife Resources, like all government agencies, makes decisions in an environment bounded by five parameters; technical, biological, socio-political, legal, and financial. No decision can violate any of these boundaries without significant consequences. Using these parameters, let’s look at the idea of stocking tiger trout into Strawberry Reservoir dealing with easiest one first, legal. Does the DWR have the legal authority to stock tiger trout into Strawberry? Certainly. Therefore this is not an issue. The other four are trickier though.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The mission of the DWR is “is to serve the people of Utah as trustee and guardian of the state's wildlife.” In the case of a sportfishery such as Strawberry, that means we need to ask the people who use the resource what they want. As pointed out by Alan Ward in a letter posted earlier in this thread, most of the people that use Strawberry want a rainbow fishery. This does not mean that other alternatives are not possible, but their wishes must be considered in the decision making process.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The technical aspect of the decision making process has two components. First of all, can we make sufficient tiger trout to stock Strawberry, and secondly, do we have the capability of raising them. Creating enough tiger trout for Strawberry would likely require additional broodstock which will take three to five years to accomplish. Raising the tiger trout for Strawberry would require approximately 80,000 pounds of additional (new) hatchery space plus the additional space for the broodstock. Any alternative to make this stocking occur before we have the broodstock or additional hatchery space available would require shorting other waters in the state by 80,000 pounds of tiger trout production.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Biologically, the stocking of tiger trout may be neither a plus or a minus. There are no data to suggest that they are necessary to control the chubs, but they may not be a detriment either. One biological factor that would need to be evaluated more closely is how much forage would be available for the tigers and what would their impact be on the other trout species in the reservoir. Other species that have been suggested in this thread, tiger musky, smallmouth bass, etc would likely have significant biological concerns.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"] That leaves us with financial. Stocking fish is not cheap. On average, stocked fish cost the anglers of this state about $3.40/lb. Using the 80,000 pound figure mentioned earlier, this equates to an additional expense of about $272,000. At the very least this amount of money would require some work to identify, and may only be possible at the expense of other programs.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]The DWR takes its responsibility to manage wildlife for the people of the State of Utah very seriously and discussions like this one are helpful in identifying the desires of the users. However, it is important for the public to be informed of all of the factors that go into the decision making process to understand why some things may happen and others will not, and the time it takes from decision to implementation.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]Having said all of that, the management plan for Strawberry Reservoir is being rewritten this year and we are open to all suggestions. There will be two fisheries open houses in the Central Region next week to discuss any issues and concerns with Strawberry Reservoir or any other fishery in Utah. The first will be at the DWR Central Region Office on the evening of May 22nd. The other will be held in the DWR Salt Lake Office on the evening of May 24th.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Sorry for the long post.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Paul[/font]
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[url "mailto:paulbirdsey@utah.gov"]paulbirdsey@utah.gov[/url]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]The Division of Wildlife Resources, like all government agencies, makes decisions in an environment bounded by five parameters; technical, biological, socio-political, legal, and financial. No decision can violate any of these boundaries without significant consequences. Using these parameters, let’s look at the idea of stocking tiger trout into Strawberry Reservoir dealing with easiest one first, legal. Does the DWR have the legal authority to stock tiger trout into Strawberry? Certainly. Therefore this is not an issue. The other four are trickier though.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]The mission of the DWR is “is to serve the people of Utah as trustee and guardian of the state's wildlife.” In the case of a sportfishery such as Strawberry, that means we need to ask the people who use the resource what they want. As pointed out by Alan Ward in a letter posted earlier in this thread, most of the people that use Strawberry want a rainbow fishery. This does not mean that other alternatives are not possible, but their wishes must be considered in the decision making process.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]The technical aspect of the decision making process has two components. First of all, can we make sufficient tiger trout to stock Strawberry, and secondly, do we have the capability of raising them. Creating enough tiger trout for Strawberry would likely require additional broodstock which will take three to five years to accomplish. Raising the tiger trout for Strawberry would require approximately 80,000 pounds of additional (new) hatchery space plus the additional space for the broodstock. Any alternative to make this stocking occur before we have the broodstock or additional hatchery space available would require shorting other waters in the state by 80,000 pounds of tiger trout production.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]Biologically, the stocking of tiger trout may be neither a plus or a minus. There are no data to suggest that they are necessary to control the chubs, but they may not be a detriment either. One biological factor that would need to be evaluated more closely is how much forage would be available for the tigers and what would their impact be on the other trout species in the reservoir. Other species that have been suggested in this thread, tiger musky, smallmouth bass, etc would likely have significant biological concerns.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] That leaves us with financial. Stocking fish is not cheap. On average, stocked fish cost the anglers of this state about $3.40/lb. Using the 80,000 pound figure mentioned earlier, this equates to an additional expense of about $272,000. At the very least this amount of money would require some work to identify, and may only be possible at the expense of other programs.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]The DWR takes its responsibility to manage wildlife for the people of the State of Utah very seriously and discussions like this one are helpful in identifying the desires of the users. However, it is important for the public to be informed of all of the factors that go into the decision making process to understand why some things may happen and others will not, and the time it takes from decision to implementation.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]Having said all of that, the management plan for Strawberry Reservoir is being rewritten this year and we are open to all suggestions. There will be two fisheries open houses in the Central Region next week to discuss any issues and concerns with Strawberry Reservoir or any other fishery in Utah. The first will be at the DWR Central Region Office on the evening of May 22nd. The other will be held in the DWR Salt Lake Office on the evening of May 24th.[/font]
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[font "Times New Roman"]Sorry for the long post.[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[font "Times New Roman"]Paul[/font]
[font "Times New Roman"] [/font]
[url "mailto:paulbirdsey@utah.gov"]paulbirdsey@utah.gov[/url]