Georgia Council of Trout Unlimited

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Georgia Council of Trout Unlimited

• MISSION STATEMENT
• The mission of the Georgia Council of
• Trout Unlimited is to protect, conserve
• and restore Georgias coldwater fisheries
• and their watersheds.
• 12 Active Chapters
• 3,400 Members in Georgia

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A Few Trout Facts

• Over 4,000 miles of streams in Georgia
• Over 100,000 trout anglers
• 1.1 million trout stocked yearly
• 31 of stocked trout come from the Lake Burton
  Hatchery

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Save the Hatchery

• Due to an income deficit State agencies have been
  required to propose cuts to their budgets.
• One of DNRs proposals was the closing of the
  Lake Burton Hatchery.

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Economic Impact

• The website for the Federal Chattahoochee Forest
  National Fish Hatchery (Suches, GA) outlines the
  economic impact of the fish grown there and
  stocked in surrounding streams. For every one
  dollar spent on operating this particular
  hatchery, almost 43 of economic impact results.
  http//www.fws.gov/southeast/ChattahoocheeForest/C
  hattahoocheeForest-EconomicImpact.pdf
• One could reasonably assume that the Burton Trout
  Hatchery has a comparable impact.

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Funding Facts

• Closing the Hatchery will save GA only 400,000
  and will cause a negative economic impact of over
  
• 17 million for Northeast Georgia.

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What you can do..

• WRITE Governor Sonny Perdue
• The Office of the Governor State of
  Georgia
• 203 State Capitol Atlanta, GA 3033
  http//gov.georgia.gov
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• Your State Senator and Representative
  http//www.legis.state.ga.us
• Senator-elect Jim B. Butterworth
  Rep-elect Stephen Allison
• 50th GA Senatorial District
  8th District GA House of Representatives
• 555 Monroe Street, Unit 20 90 Blue Ridge
  Street
• Clarksville, GA 30523 Blairsville, GA
  30512
• Commissioner Noel Holcomb
• GA Department of Natural Resources
• 2 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive SE Suite 1252
  East
• Atlanta, GA 30334-9000 http//www.gadnr.org 
• E-mail to all members of the GA DNR Board
  dnrboard_at_dnr.state.ga.us

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A Few Talking Points

• Closing the Hatchery causes a much greater loss
  of revenue than savings in the budget.
• On Tuesday, November 25th Governor Perdue and
  Noel Holcomb, the commissioner of DNR, met and
  agreed to take the Hatchery off the list of
  budget cuts.
• However, no decision is final until the
  legislature votes in the next session beginning
  in January, 2009. Consequently it is important
  to let your elected officials know how important
  the Burton hatchery is, and how you feel about
  sustaining trout fishing in northeast Georgia.

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More Talking Points

• For most Georgia trout anglers, stocked trout
  were their introduction to the joys of trout
  fishing and the wonders of mountain ecosystems.
  
• Georgia trout waters are marginal, and restocking
  is necessary to sustain a fishery.

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Possible solution to the critical budgetary
problem that is anticipated though 2010.

• Increase trout fishing user fees for anglers by
  5 per year
• to 10.
• Note The trout user fee in NC is 10 and in TN
  is 18.
• This would produce a revenue of 500,000 per year
  as compared to saving 400,000 by closing the
  hatchery.

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Trout dont live in ugly places
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ACT NOW!!!!!!!