Sen. Kit Bond, pictured, called himself an "avid fisherman, conservationist and outdoors man" in speaking to a group of community members at the Neosho National Fish Hatchery yesterday. As a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Bond announced that he had secured $2.95 million in federal dollars in the fiscal 2007 Interior spending bill for the construction of a new visitor's center at the facility. Before being signed into law the bill must be passed by the full Senate and reconciled with the House of Representatives' bill of which Rep. Roy Blunt has influence.
"We look for priorities for funding. We look to see if local groups show support. Then we give supplemental income to support their efforts," Bond said. He called the Neosho Hatchery, which he reminded everyone was the oldest fish hatchery in the nation in operation today, a "great resource for the area" and complimented everyone on the enthusiasm shown for its programs.
Despite the more than 40,000 visitors who come to the facility each year, Bond called attention to the current inadequacy of the visitor's center describing it as a place where "no more than four can get into and be able to turn around."
The new 8,500 square foot visitors’ center, to be built with the funds Bond secured, will offer exhibits, an aquarium, a classroom, wet lab and public education areas as well as new staff offices and a public research library.
Explaining the history and operations of the Neosho Fish Hatchery to Sen. Kit Bond is its manager, David E. Hendrix, extreme right. 40,000 visitors take advantage of the hatchery's picnic grounds and activities each year. Looking on is Teresa Van Winkle, president of the Friends of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery that plays a key role in hatchery operations.
The special guests touring the hatchery walk the gauntlet in order to observe the feeding frenzy of the outdoor fish. The more aggressive fish are isolated from the others, Hendrix said, as Bond, pictured fourth from left, tossed food as he walked.
With a small staff of five, the Hatchery provides a number of critical conservation efforts, said Bond. The staff supplies mandated mitigation of rainbow trout for Lake Taneycomo and has raised lake sturgeon, pallid sturgeon (which someone anonymously labeled "great bait"), walleye and freshwater drum in the past year. Other warm water species raised include bluegill, small and large mouth bass, catfish and crappie.
The Hatchery also provides protection to the endangered Ozark cave fish located in the spring-fed creeks on the hatchery’s property and recovery efforts for the endangered pallid sturgeon in the lower Missouri River. Bond pointed out that Neosho is the lead regional hatchery in this effort in partnership with several other fish and wildlife field stations.
David E. Hendrix, manager of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery since 1990, at right, explains the hatching bins to Sen. Kit Bond. After the fish are held inside in a tank, they are transferred outside after three months. An automatic fish feed and added oxygen helps create 70,000 pounds of fish annually. The additional oxygen more than triples the output of the hatchery each year.
In addition to recovery and protection of endangered species, the Hatchery provides environmental education and outreach to the public. David E. Hendrix, manager of the Neosho Hatchery, called attention to two programs offered the first and second Fridays in June. One, he said, attracts between 150 to 200 school children to the center and gives them an opportunity to catch up to four 17" fish. The other program focuses on the elderly and physically challenged and allows many of them a day to re-live fishing experiences they once had.
Accompanying Bond, Hendrix and other special guests on a tour of the facilities was Teresa Van Winkle. Holding two hats for the Friends of the Neosho National Fish Hatchery, Van Winkle currently is membership chairman and president.
"They wouldn't let me give up being membership chairman," Van Winkle said, admitting that she lived nearby and had held many jobs in the past including planting flowers, pulling weeds and loading fish. Fourteen years ago the Arkansas native volunteered to help out at a kid's derby. Pardon the pun she said, but she was "hooked" every since.
Van Winkle said she soon will have an opportunity to learn the art of fly-fishing old-world style which she plans to share with hatchery visitors. This more technical style of fly-fishing will be taught to her by an instructor from Wales during a trip to Flippin, AR and the White River.
The Neosho National Fish Hatchery is located at 520 East Park St., Neosho. Take MO-86 to Freeman Rd. to Park or US-60 to the Carl Sweeney Pky. to Freeman Rd. For questions or membership or donor information, please phone (417) 451-4006 or (417) 455-2103.
For more into about the trout operation, go here. For a blurb about the new construction, go here
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