All one has to do is check out the highways of Arkansas on a Friday or Saturday to see the evidence that plenty of the state’s residents love fishing. And plenty more travel to Arkansas for weekend stays or longer on the many rivers and lakes to try their hand at catching fish.
The plentiful supply of game fish doesn’t just happen. The Arkansas Game & Fish Commission operates eight fish hatcheries around the state, including the C.B. “Charlie” Craig State Hatchery in Centerton. All told, the state hatcheries and two federal fish hatcheries stock more than 20 million fish in the state’s water every year. Each hatchery provides several jobs and supports the sport of fishing that adds so much to Arkansas’ quality of life and its economy.
Those are among the reasons it’s promising to hear representatives of the Northwest Arkansas Conservation Authority and the commission are talking about development of a new fish hatchery on property owned by the authority. They’re exploring the idea of using effluent — the clean discharge of water from the authority’s wastewater treatment plant — to provide the water necessary for the fish hatchery processes.
State officials have been searching for a site for a warm-water hatchery in Northwest Arkansas since 2000. It’s early in discussions, and apparently no one knows where the estimated $70 million needed to build a hatchery might come from. There’s plenty of science to go through to ensure such a project would work effectively at the site.
We appreciate the creativity of state and local officials in potentially using the recycled water to flow through the hatchery. That’s taking what some might view in a negative fashion and turning it into a real positive.
It’s encouraging to see the advancement of such a win-win idea for the state of Arkansas. Fish hatcheries are tourist attractions unto themselves and can serve as powerful educational tools for area school children.
There’s a long way to go before anything becomes a reality, but it sounds like they’ve already hatched a pretty good idea.
CASUALTIES OF WAR
To honor the men and women in our armed forces and remind our readers of their sacrifices, the Northwest Arkansas Times is publishing Department of Defense announcements identifying Americans killed in active military operations.
Army Spc. Anthony R. Maddox, 22, of Port Arthur, Texas, died July 22 in Landstuhl, Germany, from a noncombat-related incident that occurred in Andar, Afghanistan. He was
assigned to the 10th Brigade Support Battalion, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, Fort Drum, N.Y.
Army 1st Lt. Jonam Russell, 25, of Cornville, Ariz.; Sgt. Stefan M. Smith, 24 of Glennville, Ga.; and Spc. Rob L. Nichols, 24, of Colorado Springs, Colo., died July 23 in Soltan Kheyl, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device. They were assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division, Fort Stewart, Ga.
Army Sgt. Eric T. Lawson, 30, of Stockbridge, Ga., and Spc. Caryn E. Nouv, 29, of Newport News, Va., died July 27, in Ghazni Province, Afghanistan, of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their vehicle with an improvised explosive device and small-arms fire. They were assigned to the 10th Transportation Battalion, 7th Sustainment Brigade, Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.