Delegation to FWS: Conduct Cost Benefit Analysis Before Moving Archives

Press Release

Today, U.S. Senators John Thune (R-South Dakota) and Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota), and Representative Kristi Noem (R-South Dakota) sent a letter to the U.S. Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) conduct a cost benefit analysis of any proposal to relocate the D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery Archives. The delegation's letter also requests answers to a number of questions from FWS to define the logic behind and clarify the need for the archive relocation.

The delegation writes, "We are disappointed that the FWS is once again targeting the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery. We respectfully ask that before any further action is taken with regard to the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery, that the FWS provide us with a cost benefit analysis of the proposal to relocate the D.C. Booth Archives to the NCTC in West Virginia."

More than 155,000 people visit the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish each year. The facility currently houses 175,000 artifacts that are open and accessible to the public and researchers from across the country, including researchers for the FWS. Because the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery receives relatively few federal dollars annually, which are highly leveraged using a private to federal funding ratio of approximately 60/40 in addition to 14,000 hours of volunteer labor each year, the delegation's letter points out that D.C. Booth is a model example of presidential and secretary youth initiatives and should not be a target for closure or personnel reduction.

According to recent media reports, the FWS may be considering moving a portion of the D.C. Booth Fish Hatchery Archives located at the Spearfish facility to the National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. This move by the FWS comes in spite of a stipulation from Congress that no National Fish Hatchery be closed this year and follows an increase of $6 million to the agency's budget.

NCTC is a closed training facility that offers no general public access, which leads the delegation to question whether the 175,000 artifacts currently located at D.C. Booth would be accessible to the public if they are moved to NCTC.

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