History
When early pioneers began migrating to the western United States, there were no catch limits on fish and no laws preventing people from modifying fish habitats to meet human needs for water, food, and safety. As settlement progressed, abundant fish populations began to decline. By 1870, growing concern for such declines prompted fishery studies, which spurred the establishment of fish spawning stations for collecting and hatching fish eggs and stocking small fish back into waters with declining fisheries. Many of these early spawning stations later became fish hatcheries, marking the beginning of the Fisheries Program and the NFHS.
President Ulysses S. Grant is chiefly responsible for the first official government action to conserve U.S. fishery resources for future generations. President Grant established the U.S. Fish Commission in 1871. The Commission was the forerunner of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Fisheries Program.
In 1872, the first Federal fish hatchery, known as the Baird Hatcher, was established on the McCloud River in California. The NFHS has since grown into a large complex system devoted to conserving U.S. fishery resources.
Originally Spencer Fullerton Baird was chosen by President Ulysses S. Grant to manage the fisheries in the country. He was named "Commissoner of Fish and Fisheries". In 1871 Baird took office but his work was still in effect. The people were now understandin the importance of the fisheries, for sport and food. With much pressure from organizations such as; American Fish Cultural Association and American Fisheries Society, Congress reserved $15,000 for the fisheries.
The man that was chosen to essentially take Baird's position was Livingston Stone. With a group of scientists his job was to find the location of salmon spawning areas and develop a salmon hatchery so that the eggs could be managed and shipped around the country so that the salmon could be available for all. Stone and his team located this area and started shipping eggs as soon as possible. A few miles from where they had originally found the salmon eggs, rainbow trout eggs were also found. Now rainbow trout eggs and salmon eggs were being shipped across the world. Essentially every rainbow trout's native water is northern California. The Baird Hatchery was formed from Stone and today the hatchery still manages fish as they did back in the 1800s.
Read more about this topic: National Fish Hatchery System
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“American time has stretched around the world. It has become the dominant tempo of modern history, especially of the history of Europe.”
—Harold Rosenberg (1906–1978)
“In all history no class has been enfranchised without some selfish motive underlying. If to-day we could prove to Republicans or Democrats that every woman would vote for their party, we should be enfranchised.”
—Carrie Chapman Catt (1859–1947)