Welcome Reghan

 

 

Reghan feeds Hines Emerald Dragonfly larvae. Photo credit: Megan Bradley/USFWS.

We’re excited to welcome a new Pathways student to the hatchery. Reghan Yourell joins
us from U.W. Eau Claire where she’s majoring in Environmental Science with a minor in
psychology and is on the Dean’s List. Reghan started at the hatchery in May and has
been working hard from day one, learning, caring for our fish, mussels and dragonflies,
and building things to help move forward our hatchery programs. Reghan finds that most
of her time is occupied with classes since she’s still a student, but she enjoys reading,
playing with her family dogs, spending time outdoors and traveling. We’re looking
forward to her teaching our staff more about how we can put together psychology and
the environment to improve our conservation mission and to seeing how she grows in her
conservation career. By: Megan Bradley



Wolf River Lake Sturgeon Spawning


As Walleye season and Rainbow trout stocking come to an end, Lake Sturgeon spawning season has begun. Our first trip is to the Wolf River located below the dam in Shawano, WI. This is where WI DNR staff and UWSP students collect adult Lake Sturgeon to checks tags, take lengths, and extract eggs and milt. Once the eggs and milt are collected the adult Lake Sturgeon are immediately returned to the Wolf River. Eggs are then fertilized and transported back to the Genoa National Fish Hatchery for rearing. The eggs will rear for approximately 7 days before hatching and 21 days after hatching they will start feeding. The juveniles are provided brine shrimp for the first four weeks followed by ground bloodworms and eventually whole bloodworms for the next 8 weeks until they are fed krill for the remainder of the season. Once the growing season (May-Sep.) is completed they are approximately 7 inches in length and are ready to be stocked. The Wolf River juveniles will be stocked in the Cumberland River and the Upper Portion of the Tennessee River through partnerships with Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency. While feeding the juveniles 3 times a day staff are also working on ongoing research projects such as the recently completed study: Growth and Survival of Lake Sturgeon Fed Traditional Diets vs. Commercial diets and Bioaccumulation of Contaminants of Emerging Concern within Traditionally and Commercially Fed Lake Sturgeon. By: Jadon Motquin

Red River Part Deux


Ongoing Lake sturgeon restoration efforts were jump started this year due to a dedicated collection of conservation partners. While losing the original source of lake sturgeon eggs for 3 ongoing restorations from the Rainy River due to a retirement at a First Nations tribal hatchery in Canada, a temporary holding site was needed on the U.S. side of the river to hold and spawn spawning adults. Conversations began in early 2022 to begin a search where a temporary adult holding facility could be housed by the source population of Rainy River to collect eggs from. With several coordination meetings arranged by our neighbors to the north (the Midwest Fisheries Center) to determine partner roles, the hatchery volunteered to begin equipment acquisitions to set up a mobile brood stock holding unit on the banks of the Rainy River close to an active spawning site. A generous donation of poly tanks was made by the Red Lake tribe of Chippewas to get us started. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) found an optimal site located inside a Minnesota State Park with available electrical and facilities. Genoa acquired the pumps, piping and alarm monitoring and notification systems for the mobile unit. Upon reports that the lake sturgeon had gathered at the spawning site, the mobile holding facility was rapidly set up and put into operation. DNR personnel began collecting adults and 8 females and 18 males were placed in the tanks for Genoa NFH and partners to begin hormone induction to stimulate egg and milt release. Eggs were gathered for two federal hatcheries with all the adults being safely returned to the river. After a grow out period of 4-5 months 6-8 inch fall fingerlings will be released in 2 Minnesota tribal waters and the Red River of Minnesota. Thanks to all our state, federal and tribal partners and our very own maintenance and biological staff members at Genoa and Upper Midwest Fisheries Center in La Crosse Wisconsin for your talents, technical expertise, and muscles to make this effort possible! By: Doug Aloisi

2023 Kids Fishing Day!

Kids fishing a hatchery pond. Photo: Erica Rasmussen/USFWS.

 

 

 

 

We had a great turn out at the Kids Fishing Day this last Saturday with over 250 people! Thank you for attending and supporting the hatchery! Kids from all over the area gathered at the Genoa National Fish Hatchery for our seventeenth annual event on May 13. Children started out the morning with 4 learning stations. One was on boat safety taught by the Corps of Engineers, a station on fish identification and behavior led by our lead fish biologist, Nick Bloomfield, a station on life cycle of a Freshwater Mussel led by our lead mussel biologist, Megan Bradley and a station on rules and regulations by a Federal Game Warden.
After an hour of learning, the kids were allowed to put their newfound knowledge to practice with a two-hour open fishing event on a stocked hatchery pond. Children were able to take home three trout. Thank you to the Friends of the Upper Mississippi for sponsoring the event and providing a cleaning station for families to take home clean trout and arranging a light lunch for all to enjoy! Thank you so much to all of our Genoa National Fish Hatchery staff and from the La Crosse area U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Fisheries Offices, our Friends Group and the Friends of the Upper Mississippi, and our Volunteers. This event couldn’t happen without everyone’s help! Thank you! Thank you to McDonalds and Rock Kendrick Trust for your donations. By: Erica Rasmussen

 

 

Kids holding up their rainbow trout fish that they have caught. Photo: Erica Rasmussen/USFWS.

 

 

Diving into Spring

 

By Megan Bradley, Genoa National Fish Hatchery

Each year our mussel biologists complete training, take their gear for servicing and then reassemble their kits to make sure they can safely dive for the season.  This involves ensuring that tanks that hold their air are safe and sealed and taking the regulators they breathe from to be cleaned and parts replaced, as filters inside of them collect fine silt from the water and their occasional contact with the river bottom [you’ll have to excuse the snail shell that we found one year].

Training is going to be a bit late this year, falling in the first week of May.  We’ll start by testing our new BC’s (Buoyancy control devices- or the vests we wear to keep our gear on our backs, and together) in the pool at Marineland to see how they work for our style of diving.  Next, we’ll do a First Aid, CPR, AED and Divers Alert Network Oxygen refresher online, then meet in person to practice scenarios and apply our skills.  Finally, we’ll dive in the university pool to demonstrate our basic dive skills and train a new diver on dive tending skills and to test our athletic prowess in swimming.  This is everyone’s least favorite part since we don’t swim much when we dive for mussels, as we’re pretty practiced in staying right on the bottom.  Gathering and training together is a learning experience, and a fun one, and makes our divers safer and builds a strong team to accomplish our freshwater mussel conservation goals. 

 Genoa NFH diver, Beth Glidewell, clears her mask during this year’s dive skills checkout in the pool. Credit: USFWS

 

MISSISSIPPI RIVER

POOL 8 RIVER CLEANUP

Friends of the Upper Mississippi

 

 

 

Friends of the Upper Mississippi along with CARP(Boathouse Owners), US Fish & Wild Life Service and the US Army Corp of Engineers are asking for your help in cleaning up the Mississippi River in Pool 8.

Saturday June 3rd  2023

8:00am  –   12:00 pm

Wild Cat Landing

Brownsville, MN.

Please wear old clothes, a long sleeve shirt, work gloves, boots/chest waders (if available) life jacket, sunscreen and bug spray. Boat, if possible.   Also a battery operated Saw Zaw is a big help. Donuts are provided along with bottled water and all the trash bags you will need. Any Questions please call (608) 780-2710

 

Thanks for another great Kids Fishing Day


 
Thanks for another Kids Fishing Day event 2 weeks ago now as the spring is getting away from us.  There was lots of smiles to be had as the bite was on and I don’t believe any one child left fishless.  Over 250 children and their family members were registered, not counting  the many Friends members and Volunteers that pitched in.  
 
Making outdoor and family memories is very important to make generational conservation values to pass along to the future.  Thanks so much for your part, whatever it was to make that happen.  And thanks to the presenters, the food distributors, pole and bait distributors and fishing mentors who helped kids and their parents learn how to identify fish, how to catch fish, and why mussels and boating safety are important. 
 
Sincerely,
 
Doug Aloisi                           
Hatchery Manager
Genoa National Fish Hatchery

KIDS FISHING DAY.

SATURDAY, MAY 13, 2023

8:30 AM—12:00 PM

Genoa National Fish Hatchery

Join staff from the 3 La Crosse area U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Fisheries Offices and our Friends Group, the Friends of the Upper Mississippi for a day of fishing fun!

This popular annual event is for children 5-12 years old who are accompanied by a parent or guardian. The event begins with hands-on learning sessions about fishing techniques and conservation, then children are allowed to fish in a stocked hatchery pond.

Poles & Bait will be supplied, with no outside bait allowed due to biosecurity concerns.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Email: Erica_Rasmussen@fws.gov

Or call: 608-689-2605

Northern Pike egg collection

Last year, we had a new request for Northern Pike eggs from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Genoa National Fish Hatchery regularly collected these eggs in the past, but it had been several years. Some of us had never taken part in spawning Northern Pike. This year, we got the opportunity to continue to hone our craft, as we received another request from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources (IDNR). Northern Pike on the Mississippi River in our neighborhood typically start spawning at the end of March or early April. Using information gleaned from last year’s work, we were able to narrow down our search for spawning sites and set our fyke nets in areas that were productive for us last year. Conditions were a bit different this year with lower water, but the fish were still there. Some of our net sites barely had a foot of water, but the fish didn’t seem to mind! The water in these shallow areas was up to 5 degrees warmer than main channel temperatures, drawing several species looking for a respite from the cold winter. We were able to get all the eggs we needed in two nights of net sets. Staff from IDNR’s Decorah State Fish Hatchery came over to pick up eggs, where they will be hatched out and stocked in hatchery ponds. They will grow for a brief stint in the ponds before being released into Iowa’s interior rivers.
By: Nick Bloomfield

Extracting eggs from a fish and the eggs are going into the pan. Photo: USFWS.

Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly Culture: patiently waiting for spring!


Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly eggs that were received in November from research partners at Univ. of South Dakota are still happily chilling in their winter homes. These eggs are maintained at a steady 3-4°C until a planned warming schedule that will begin in April. During the warming time, temperatures are stepped up a few degrees per week and egg cups are checked daily for new hatches. New hatches are then placed in individual culture cups and a routine feeding schedule of zooplankton prey begins.
Hine’s Emerald eggs over wintering in a culture cup. Photo: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.

New juvenile culture is a very hands-on, time intensive stage of the culture cycle, so while we’re waiting for the spring hatch to begin, supplies are being gathered and prepared. One of the steps that slowed down the process last season was filtering and concentrating zooplankton prey out of pond water that is pumped through the mussel building raceways. Each culture cup is fed a few milliliters of this concentrated food 2-3 times per week, so to speed up this step, additional sieves were assembled to double the filtering capacity. Culture cups have also been gathered, pre-written labels are being prepared, pipettes and other bench-top supplies have been collected… now fingers crossed that the eggs remain stable for a few more weeks, then a successful hatch can begin!
By: Beth Glidewell

Hine’s Emerald eggs over wintering in a culture cup. Photo: Beth Glidewell/USFWS