Ref:706/03

"This fall will be a milestone," said Keith Wilda, executive director of the Western Massachusetts Center for Sustainable Aquaculture, which runs the hatchery. "We have stocked a few fish in private ponds, but they weren't fish that were spawned here. These are the first fish that were spawned here in nine years."

Nourished by an aquifer that sends 200 gallons per minute of chilled water coursing through its fish pools, the hatchery dates to 1914 and by one account "has had more lives than the proverbial cat." The 148-acre property was entrusted to the federal government by the family of trout fisherman John Sullivan Scully, and served to cultivate trout, smallmouth bass and later Atlantic salmon until budget cuts led to the hatchery's 1994 closing.

The restoration of the facility as a center of aquaculture -- the cultivation of fish for food, educational and recreational purposes -- is testimony to the efforts of a former Hampshire College professor, the state and federal governments and a coalition of willing volunteers.

In 1999, the hatchery grounds, which include two residences, an office building, a garage and a "hatch house," were "in shambles" from neglect and vandalism. As custodian of the property, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service was concerned.

"We had severe vandalism," said Jan Rowan, who serves with the federal agency in Sunderland. "We were kind of afraid it was going to go from bad to worse. The buildings are of historic value and the water source is probably something we couldn't tap again in this part of the country.

"We went looking for a suitable 'sub'" to maintain the property, she explained. "Our preference was to go with an academic institution to pick it up."

The agency and Kenneth Bergstrom, who had founded the Center for Sustainable Aquaculture at Hampshire College in Amherst, came to an agreement whereby the center, in effect, would lease the facility for education and research, an arrangement that extends to September 2004.

The nonprofit Berkshire Hatchery Foundation Inc. was formed as a fund-raising and volunteer organization, and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in September 1999.

A former commercial trout farmer, Bergstrom "supervised and worked with a group of staff and volunteers as they cleaned and scrubbed Kelt House, the office, all the tools and every pool to ensure proper sterilization," recounted a foundation newsletter. "Next we moved on to beautification of the grounds. Everyone helped clear out all of the overgrowth to make the ponds and pools visible and accessible to visitors."

Overseers estimate that nearly $200,000 was spent to restore the hatchery. The facility hosts 10 3,500-gallon fish pools containing Atlantic salmon and rainbow and brown trout "brood" stock for producing eggs. The outdoor pools are covered by tents to discourage predator birds.

Last fall, volunteers stripped about 70,000 trout eggs and later picked out dead or nonfertilized eggs. The 40,000 to 50,000 miniature fish now wriggling in six aluminum raceways in the hatch house will be used for feed studies, receiving alternative plant protein, and for stocking local waters.

After being fertilized outside, and moving through a progression of hatching trays, raceways and fingerling tubs in the hatch house, the trout are returned to the outdoor pools, where they grow an inch per month, Wilda said. The process from fertilization to the outdoor pools takes six months.

Also growing salmon

Salmon are another story. The hatchery has 50 Atlantic salmon donated by the White River National Fish Hatchery in Bethel, Vt., but must keep them disease-free for three years to secure federal certification. One year remains.

In the past, the hatchery supported the Connecticut River Salmon Restoration Project. It may do so again in the future.

The list of groups that supported the restoration of the hatchery, many of which continue to be involved, includes the Berkshire Chapter of the Izaak Walton League, the neighboring Gould Farm residential treatment community, the Kolburne School residential treatment center, Mount Everett Regional School, the Lake Buel and Lake Garfield associations and a group of people who met for coffee at the Monterey General Store.

"It was such a sad situation when they closed [the hatchery] in '94. It was vandalized and overgrown," said Bergstrom, who lives in Pelham. "The community has really gotten behind it. We couldn't do it without all the volunteers."

Bergstrom resigned as head of the Center for Sustainable Aquaculture in the spring of 2002 due to health reasons, but remains as executive director of the hatchery foundation. He was succeeded as center director by Wilda.

The aquaculture center now is affiliated with the University of Massachusetts, which likely will renew the hatchery lease when the agreement expires next year, Wilda said. The hatchery is considered a field station of the center, which receives funding from the state Department of Food and Agriculture and has other responsibilities to promote aquaculture in the region.

2 other centers in state

There are two other state-funded aquaculture centers, at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne and at Salem State College, primarily focused on shellfish such as oysters and Quahog hard-shell clams.

Aquaculture is a $22 million-a-year industry in Massachusetts, according to Wilda, ranging from "mom and pop" backyard ponds to Bioshelters Inc. in Amherst, which produces tilapia, a whitefish native to the Nile River, for Asian markets in Boston. As catalysts of this growing industry, the aquaculture centers are supported by Gov. Mitt Romney and state Commissioner of Agriculture Douglas P. Gillespie, he said.

But given the fragility of the state budget, ongoing support for the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery remains an issue. The aquaculture center subsidizes about half of the $60,000 annual cost of the operation and has assigned hatchery coordinator Kevin Ferry to be there four days a week. Should state money diminish, the hatchery foundation must pick up the slack.

"You know how the state budget is," observed Bergstrom. "At any time, they can pull the plug on our funding [and] we have nowhere else to turn."

For further information, call (413) 528-9761, or write to the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery, PO Box 84, Monterey, MA 01245.