*Please call Erica (608)689-2605 #127 or email erica_rasmussen@fws.gov for setting up a date and time to volunteer. Thank you!
? Sorting fathead minnows (Mid-March)
? Tagging Lake Sturgeon (August/September)
? Pond Harvest (October)
? Kids Ice Fishing Day (2/1/25) & Kids Fishing Day (5/17/25)
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) annually stocks more than a million brook trout of different life stages across the country. In the Midwest region, Iron River National Fish Hatchery maintains a captive line of Isle Royale strain coaster brook trout for stocking in Lake Superior waters in support of the Brook Trout Rehabilitation Plan for Lake Superior., Coaster brook trout exhibit a unique life history trait in their use of shoreline waters of Lake Superior. Historically, coasters were widespread throughout shoreline waters of Lake Superior. To maintain genetic diversity within the brood stock, new brood lines are periodically developed. Every three to five years biologists from the USFWS Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, Iron River National Fish Hatchery, and Genoa National Fish Hatchery travel to Isle Royale National Park to collect gametes from the self-sustaining coaster brook trout population in Tobin Harbor.
A USFWS staff holding up a breeding male coaster Brook Trout. Photo credit: USFWS.
Isle Royale National Park is situated in northwest Lake Superior closer to Minnesota and Ontario than to mainland Michigan. The crew used the U. S. Geological Survey vessel, R/V Mayfly, to make the 60-mile trek from Grand Portage, Minnesota to a Park Service cabin in Rock Harbor and set up gear in Tobin Harbor. Tourist season was over, so power and plumbing had been shut down to the cabin. We would be on our own in the wilderness with a Honda generator, camp stove and some portable Buddy heaters to provide some comfort, communication and cooking source. Our drinking water would be from the lake itself, after a good boiling of course.
Brook trout spawning occurs in October at Isle Royale National Park. In Tobin Harbor, fish spawn along the shoreline in a mixture of sand, gravel, and cobble substrate. Fish are collected throughout Tobin Harbor using fyke nets placed along the shoreline. Nets are monitored daily, and length, weight, sex and reproductive condition data are collected from all brook trout captured. If the fish are releasing gametes, they are transferred to a temporary holding pen for spawning.
Spawning commences once we collect enough ripe adults to meet our target number of families or when we reach the deadline for the work boat to be loaded onto the Park Service vessel, Ranger III, for transport off the island. Approximately 400 eggs are collected from each female, roughly one quarter of the total produced. After milt and egg collection the fish are released back to the wild. Eggs collected from each female are evenly divided into up to five batches and each batch is fertilized with milt from one male creating up to five families per female.
The fertilized eggs are then transported from Isle Royale National Park to an isolation rearing facility at USFWS Iron River Fish Hatchery. There they are incubated, and the newly hatched fish raised to breeding age during which time they undergo several fish health inspections by staff at the USFWS La Crosse Fish Health Laboratory in Onalaska, Wisconsin. If the brood class passes three fish health inspections and are confirmed healthy, they are ready to be incorporated into the coaster brook trout brood program to produce offspring for restoration stocking by USFWS and partner fishery agencies in Lake Superior.
By: Nick Bloomfield, Henry Quinlan, Joe Amundson, and Josh Hartin
The late fall is a busy time for Genoa NFH’s freshwater mussel program. Staff and volunteers have been gathering juvenile mussels from various growing season culture systems and getting them settled into over-winter systems in the mussel building at the Hatchery. Partnerships with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Blackhawk Park and the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium are vital to our mussel production and culture efforts.
Culture tanks in the MARS trailer.
The trailer is placed at Blackhawk Park for the growing season, with thousands of juvenile mussels growing in each tank. The trailer and juvenile mussels are brought back to GNFH at the end of the growing season.
This season’s production focused on 9 species of mussels, and we had 14 species in culture in the MARS rearing trailer at Blackhawk Park or in mussel cages and SUPSYs at the River Museum. Plain Pocketbook, Black Sandshell and Higgin’s Eye mussels were stocked in several locations in Iowa, supporting the Iowa DNR’s mussel restoration efforts. Rainbow Mussel juveniles are being reared in culture and were stocked into the Mukwonago River supporting Wisconsin DNR restoration efforts, Fatmucket are being reared to help National Park Service efforts to restore mussels to the Cuyahoga River, and Pink Heelpslitter, Fragile Papershell and Eastern Lampmussel are in culture to support the St Regis Mohawk Tribe’s efforts to restore native mussel populations in Tribal territories. Late in the fall, Genoa NFH biologists collaborated with USGS partners to produce Salamander mussel juveniles for research and population restoration efforts.
These juvenile mussels will stay in culture in the Mussel Building until the spring, when either the MARS trailer is redeployed at Blackhawk Park, SUPSYs are ready at the River Museum, or when conditions are good for stocking the mussels into river systems. By: Beth Glidewell
In October, cages were pulled from the Harbor and juvenile mussels were sieved out of the sand and muck in the cages. A few of the 5000+ Higgin’s Eye juveniles produced this year. Photo credit: USFWS.
Each fall, the previous year’s cohort of Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly larvae are packed up and transferred to overwintering culture systems at the University of South Dakota, and at the same time the new year’s cohort of eggs arrives. The larvae that we cultured at Genoa NFH were collected as eggs in August 2023 in a severe drought, conditions that led to a limited number of Hine’s Emerald females being collected and much reduced number of eggs in the cohort. The hatching success of this cohort was also lower than previous years, but they grew well and had good survival through the later culture stages over the summer. In total, 66 larvae from the 2024 growing season were transferred for over-wintering.
The current cohort were collected as eggs in August of 2024. Water levels were low and conditions were dry this summer, but an increase in collection efforts by project partners led to a more typical number of eggs being collected from the population. The eggs that Genoa NFH received are currently in chilled ‘winter conditions’, where they’ll stay until late March/early April, when they’ll be slowly warmed to spring hatching temperatures.
By: Beth Glidewell
2024 Hine’s Emerald Dragonfly hatch (top) and end of season (bottom). Photo credit: USFWS
What another amazing experience for first time waterfowl hunters! The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Wisconsin Waterfowl Association and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service partnered for a second year to put on a learn to hunt waterfowl event specifically for women. New this year we held virtual meetings before the hunt and participation grew by 6 hunters. During the classroom time we reinforced waterfowl identification, rules and regulations, gear and waterfowl hunting methods.
Participants were also able to practice estimating distances for “wing shooting” (shooting birds in flight). The day before hunting mentors and mentees went scouting on The Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge, where the event was held, and identified an ideal spot to hunt for the following day. The next morning it was breathtaking to watch the marsh come to life! Following a successful morning of hunting participants learned how to field dress waterfowl, for many participants a first time hands on learning experience. Mentors were excited to have had another successful women by women waterfowl hunt this year and look forward to fostering this experience and partnership for years to come!
By: Erica Rasmussen
Come join us! The FREE annual Waterfowl Observation Day celebration hosted by the Friends of the Refuge – Mississippi River Pools 7 & 8 (FOR78), the Friends of the Upper Mississippi River (FUM), and the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge will be held on Saturday, November 9 at the Brownsville Overlook near Brownsville, MN between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m. Visitors will be able to view migrating birds as they rest and feed.
Spotting scopes and bird identification guides will be available for visitors to enjoy. Refuge staff and members of FUM and FOR78 will assist with bird identification and answer related questions. Light refreshments will be available while supplies last, during this event only, courtesy of FUM. Friends’ members from both organizations will have wildlife-themed items available for purchase. Please dress for chilly weather!
The Brownsville Overlook is one of the best places along the river to see hundreds of tundra swans, diving and puddle ducks, bald eagles and other birds. The overlook is located about three miles south of Brownsville, Minn., along MN Highway 26.
This year Genoa National Fish Hatchery staff collected lake sturgeon eggs from the Wolf, Wisconsin, Rainy, St. Clair and Sturgeon Rivers. Throughout the summer hatchery biologists, pathways students and youth conservation corp. enrollees have their hands full feeding and caring for lake sturgeon. As the summer season comes to an end and fall begins, these fish are ready to be tagged before being released to their stocking locations. Some lake sturgeon are coded wire tagged and others receive PIT tags and/or acoustic tags. By tagging the lake sturgeon it allows resource managers to assess future population growth, survival, and movements. The Genoa National Fish Hatchery partnered with the Wisconsin DNR for the collection of the Wolf River and Wisconsin River along with National Fish Hatchery. Genoa also partnered with the Minnesota DNR, La Crosse Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, Valley City National Fish Hatchery and Garrison Dam National Fish Hatchery to collect, raise, and release Rainy River lake sturgeon. Thank you to all of our volunteers that aided in the tagging process where over 28,000 lake sturgeon were coded wire tagged from the Wolf, Wisconsin and Rainy Rivers this year. Hatchery staff rely heavily on volunteers and partnerships to assist with individually tagging. Volunteers play a vital role in supporting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. When these fish are tagged, they are ready for transport to designated locations from Northern Minnesota to Southern Tennessee and west to South Dakota in support of continued restoration efforts.
For the St. Clair lake sturgeon the Genoa National Fish hatchery partnered with the Alpena Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office, Michigan DNR, and La Crosse Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office to collect, raise, tag, and release the St Clair lake sturgeon. Acoustic and PIT tags were used to track future growth, survival rates and movements in the Cuyahoga and Maumee Rivers. There was also lake sturgeon that only received PIT tags to be stocked in the Saginaw, Maumee, Flint, Cass, Shiawassee, and Tittabawassee Rivers for future growth and survival rates.
lake sturgeon upside down in a sponge
acoustic tag going into a fish
Biologists search for displaying Winged Mapleleaft at the St Croix National Scenic Riverway. Photo Credit: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.
As early fall water temperatures begin to drop in the St Croix River, female Winged Mapleleaf mussels are ready to have their glochidia attach to host fish. They display a lure that helps to attract channel catfish closer to the female, where she can release glochidia into the water and -hopefully- onto the catfish’s gills. Individual females only display a lure for a short window of time (a day or 2) so mussel biologists have to time collection and propagation efforts to match the mussel’s and the river’s fluctuations. Biologists snorkel or scuba dive 2 to 3 times per week during the WML brooding season to visually check the population for females that are in ‘full display’.
A Winged Mapleleaf in full display. Photo Credit: Beth Glidewell/USFWS.
As the lake sturgeon head out the door it’s time to see if all our hard worked paid off this summer in our ponds. Each year we raise many different species in our ponds including Walleye, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Perch, and Black Crappie.
In the spring, these ponds are either stocked with fry or parents to produce offspring. Ponds are then provided alfalfa to aid in zooplankton production for the offspring as a food source. The fish are then tested by fish health and then continue to grow where their food source may switch from zooplankton to worms, bugs, and minnows. Minnows are harvested out of our minnow pond each day where over 20 minnow traps are set to help feed and grow our fish. These ponds are then harvested in late September and early October. Once a pond is harvested the fish are brought inside to determine the number and weight of fish to see how they grew throughout the year. Some of these fish are set aside for mussel culture and the rest are picked up by different partners for stocking. These stockings allow for a multitude of different recreational fisheries within their perspective states. Now that ponds have been drained some will be left empty for the winter months and some will have fish in them over the winter. The ponds containing fish consist of adults used for our future offspring, fish kept for outreach events, fish for mussel culture, and Rainbow trout to continue growing until their stocking in the spring for recreational fishing. We look forward to our pond season next year and hope to continue producing successful pond rearing programs!
By: Jadon Motquin
staff netting fish
Hi friends, starting the week of Aug 19th the hatchery could use some help tagging sturgeon. If you are interested please contact Erica at 608-689-2605 for days and times available. As usual, any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you in advance. I hope you all have a great weekend, take care, Al.