PA Fish & Broke: Trout Hatcheries in “Financial Crisis”

PA Fish & Broke: WMI report suggests hunters pay for bailiut of trout hatcheries In this episode fellow PA Wild Trout Coalition board member Philip Light and I talk about multiple media outlets like Penn Live and Go Erie breaking the story that PA Fish and Boat is in “Financial Crisis.” This was prompted by a report from the WMI(Wild Life Management Institute) projecting Pennsylvania Fish and Boat commission be insolvent before 2034. The report also (falsely)claims the game commission is in trouble financially and will be tapping into its reserves. However, we discuss why thats not really true and what critical revenue sources were omitted from the WMI’s representation of the Pennsylvania Game Commission’s fiscal health. There were several concerning aspects of the WMI report. Despite hatcheries being 48% of every dollar spent at The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat commission the WMI report did not address runaway hatchery costs being largely responsible for the agency’s poor fiscal health once. And finally possibly the most concerning portion of the report is that WMI recommended that the funding between Fish & Boat and Game Commission be combined for “cost sharing.” This is a round about way of saying they recommend PGC/hunters prevent fish and boat from becoming insolvent and bailing out their reckless hatchery spending that broke the bank to begin with. This will be at the expense of hunting programs or funds since PA Fish and Boat is already operating in a deficit due to hatcheries. We talk about the hurdles of and what kind of legislative steps will be taken to attenptt to take hunters funds. Ultimately we have to ask ourselves should hunter programs, state game land purchases, and deer management take cuts to pay for Tim Schaeffer’s hatchery trout spending addiction? We talk about “leaders” who have ignored hundreds of e-mails about this issue for years and even enable waste, fraud, and abuse at fish & boat. Josh Shapiro, Greg Rothman, and Anita Kulik-Astorino have watched this reckless spending happen and done nothing despite being asked to reign it in for years. We discuss how menheden harvest regulations could make feeding hatchery trout much more expensive and bankrupt PFBC sooner. We talk about why politicians always seem to want to avoid public land purchases and instead favor polluting our streams with enormously expensive hatchery non-native trout. Finally, Phil and I talk about how you can visit PAWTC.org and take action by engaging your elected officials. Don’t forget to comment against repealing the roadless rule! Also sign your name supporting proposed menheden protections(for stripers and making trout stocking more expensive and harder to not cut). Also don’t forget to support StopPAX-1.com as the legal fight for the conodoguinet & Letort’s future begins as local residents try to prevent their community from being invaded by the Data center senator Greg Rothman profited from a land deal with. Check out PA Wild Trout Coalition https://pawtc.org/ SPEAK UP FOR THE ROADLESS RULE NOW!! https://www.backcountryhunters.org/get-involved/take-action Support StopPAX-1.com https://stoppax1.com/ Leave a comment supporting Atlantic Menhaden Draft Addendum II to reduce bay menheden harvest, protect ocean fish, and head water brook trout from hatchery fish! comments@asmfc.org Fly Fisherman Podcast-Loop to Loop interview with John Arway of PA Wild Trout Coalition on stocking reform https://www.flyfisherman.com/PodcastPlayModal.aspx?type=video&vid=559005&episode=38&astid=533595&title=John%20Arway%20and%20his%20science-based%20mission%20to%20%20%E2%80%9CLet%20Nature%20Raise%20the%20Fish%E2%80%9D&podcastKey=api/podcast/listing/82299/533595/2026 #Deer crops #deerhunting #pahunting #troutstocking #pennsylvania