The D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery in Spearfish is filing a Freedom of Information Act request with the regional office of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Denver.
Hatchery Executive Director April Gregory says the D.C. Booth Board of Directors made the decision to file - they say they’re not getting answers to their repeated calls and emails to the Fish & Wildlife Service regarding the hatchery’s already uncertain future.
“The public is very concerned about the fish hatchery and they were asking the board lots of questions about the future of the hatchery – what’s happening, what they can do to help, and those were questions that we don’t have answers to. And so the board decided any information they could gather by filing a Freedom of Information Act would be helpful going forward with advocacy efforts to try to keep the hatchery open and opening as we know it today,” says Gregory.
Gregory says the board is also requesting access to any documents related to artifacts in the hatchery’s museum that might be relocated if the hatchery is forced to close.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Public Affairs Officer Laury Parramore says the FOIA request has been received and is being processed. Parramore says the Fish and Wildlife Service has no plans to close any fish hatcheries in the fiscal year 2014.