Press Releases

Today, U.S. Congressman Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) released the following statement after the Arizona Game and Fish Commission voted this past Tuesday 5-0 in favor of funding up to $389,000 to fix a broken pipeline for the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery which amounts to about 50 percent of the cost of the repairs:

“This unanimous vote by the Commission is very good news. Rainbow trout stocking operations are one step closer to resuming at Willow Beach. I was honored to lead the charge, along with Senator McCain, to hold the Fish and Wildlife Service accountable when they arbitrarily terminated the rainbow trout stocking program and inflated cost estimates to repair the broken water line. The attempt to justify terminating this worthwhile program was extremely short sighted and I am happy to see that decision reversed.”

Commission Vice-Chair Kurt Davis said “This is a great pre-New Year’s present for the people of Mohave County and anglers across the state... Sportfishing recreation contributes $1.47 billion to Arizona’s economy annually, with much of that money going to rural communities, and Game and Fish is proud to be part of the solution keeping Willow Beach in business.”

From the Arizona Game and Fish Department press release:

The vote by the Commission to cost-share the Willow Beach hatchery repairs comes after much work by Arizona’s congressional delegation, particularly Senator John McCain and Congressman Paul Gosar, who championed a repair to the hatchery.

Infrastructure problems at the hatchery began nearly five years ago, when broken pipelines and low water levels threatened trout production at the facility. The loss of the trout stocking would continue to have a devastating economic effect on the communities in Mohave County, Arizona. The state’s sport fishing industry relies on the national hatchery system for more than 97 percent of sport fish stocked in Arizona.
The agreement approved by the Commission will, if executed, commit the Department to share the costs of repairs, and institutionalize a recreational fishing partnership with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service into the next decade. It calls for the Service to annually provide 2 million fertilized triploid rainbow trout eggs from Ennis National Fish Hatchery, 160,000 fertilized Apache trout eggs from Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery and 150,000 catchable 11-inch rainbow trout stocked annually into Willow Beach and below Davis Dam.

Additional

Congressman Gosar has created an informational page on his website about his efforts to protect the trout stocking program at the Willow Beach Fish Hatchery which includes introducing the Fish Hatchery Protection Act, H.R. 5026 that would protect propagation fish hatcheries and propagation programs within the National Fish Hatchery System. That page can be found HERE.

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