Good hiring news for state fish hatcheries

[HuntingNY-News]

This past year, the hatchery system, which is set up to run with 80 full-time staffers, has been getting by with 67. The new hires should help and will be in place by Nov. 30.

The state’s budget office this week loosened up some purse strings and authorized the state Department of Environmental Conservation to fill 11 vacant positions in the state’s fish hatchery system.

This past year, the hatchery system, which is set up to run with 80 full-time staffers, has been getting by with 67. The new hires should help and will be in place by Nov. 30, enabling the state’s fish hatcheries to operate at full capacity.

The money for the additional employees is coming out of the state’s Conservation Fund, which is funded primarily from license fees paid by hunters, fishermen and trappers.

“That’s a win for us,” said Lance Robson, of Sennett, who sits on the Conservation Fund Advisory Board. “Last fall, they released some fish (in certain parts of the state) that they would have liked to have kept until this spring because they had temporary employees and no guarantee the temporary employees would be here in the spring.”

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