National hatchery closure in Bethel has Vermont officials concerned

This story by Wilder Grimes was first published in The White River Valley Herald on Nov. 12, 2026.

Plans to place the White River National Fish Hatchery in Bethel on inactive status have raised concerns among Vermont fishery officials, who say the state’s remaining hatcheries are already operating at capacity and could be affected by changes to federal programs.

A letter addressed to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Brian Nesvik from U.S. Sens. Peter Welch, Chuck Schumer, Bernie Sanders and Kirsten Gillibrand, and U.S. Rep. Becca Balint, shared early last month, detailed the federal agency’s plans to place the hatchery on inactive status.

The congressional delegation pleaded with the director to rescind that decision, advocating for the necessity of the hatchery in maintaining fish populations in Vermont and New York.

Federal officials have not publicly explained how the hatchery’s work would be handled following its deactivation. Paul Boynton, biological science technician and assistant project leader at the White River hatchery, was unable to comment on the announced closure and was instructed to forward all media inquiries to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Employees there were also unable to provide responses.

State perspective

Dylan Sickles, fish culture operations manager for the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department, explained that the state’s five hatcheries operate separately from the federal facilities but have an agreement to work together to meet the needs of the state.

Though the Dwight D. Eisenhower National Fish Hatchery in North Chittenden was able to take on the work of the White River hatchery during its six-year hiatus following Tropical Storm Irene, Sickles isn’t confident that it has enough space to absorb additional responsibilities without affecting the programs it shares with the state.

While the Dwight D. Eisenhower facility primarily works with the state hatcheries to stock brook trout across Vermont, the White River hatchery provides brook trout eggs to them.

“We try not to move too many fish, but within the federal program they could do that within what they have from the White River (hatchery), potentially to the Dwight D. Eisenhower (hatchery).”

Despite that being a possibility, Sickles doesn’t believe there is adequate space to accommodate all of the White River hatchery’s work.

“They’d have to put those fish in the tanks that are already occupied by other fish they have. So their space is limited to do that as well,” he said. “There aren’t empty tanks laying around anywhere, or space available for additional fish we reared in our program. So that’s part of the big problem right now.”

Sickles explained that state hatcheries are at full capacity.

The White River hatchery contributes to restoration and conservation of lake trout in the lower Great Lakes, as well as landlocked Atlantic salmon in Lake Champlain. It is also used by researchers from Concordia, Purdue, Boston University and Dartmouth College for their studies, according to an interview with Boynton conducted by The Herald this past spring.

The federal hatcheries’ work is closely connected to state fishery programs, but the two agencies have separate responsibilities. Without details from the federal government about its plans, it remains unclear how much of the Bethel facility’s work might be transferred elsewhere or how those changes could affect the state’s cooperative programs.

Conservation concerns

Sickles explained that in recent years in Vermont, natural reproduction of lake trout in Lake Champlain has occurred, and because of that, the state has moved away from the broodstock program and is allowing fish to naturally stock the lake.

The White River hatchery currently holds a lake trout broodstock line, and the eggs are given to the Eisenhower hatchery and used to stock other lakes throughout the state.

Sickles added that even though things have improved in recent years for lake trout in Lake Champlain, conditions are always changing, and having the backup supply at the White River facility is important.

He mentioned a small fish known as a round goby that he said may be making its way toward the Lake Champlain area and would eat salmon and trout eggs if it arrived.

If that were the case, another location would have to be found for the fish. Sickles warned that if the Dwight D. Eisenhower facility were to take on that responsibility, “that would potentially reduce the capacity that we operate with them for the brook trout and the other fish that we stock that they help us out with.”

The possibility illustrates why Sickles considers the Bethel facility an important backup, even as some fish populations have begun reproducing naturally.

History of cooperation

The White River National Fish Hatchery in Bethel is one of two national hatcheries in Vermont and works closely with the Dwight D. Eisenhower Hatchery in North Chittenden.

In their letter, the members of Congress described how, after Atlantic salmon and lake trout populations disappeared from Lake Champlain around 1900 due to runoff and dam construction, Vermont and New York began reviving hatcheries to restore the populations.

In 1984, the White River National Fish Hatchery was established to provide federal support for this endeavor.

These efforts, the letter explained, “have only grown more critical since the introduction of aquatic invasive species like sea lamprey.”

The White River hatchery was severely damaged during Tropical Storm Irene and was forced to close in 2011 until a $2.4 million renovation allowed for reopening in 2017.

During that time, the Dwight D. Eisenhower facility filled the gap, “underscoring the importance of redundancy in the National Fish Hatchery System,” the letter read, as extreme weather grows more frequent.

That history is part of the congressional delegation’s argument for keeping both federal hatcheries operating. The earlier closure demonstrated how one facility could support the other’s work, but Sickles’ concerns about available space suggest that repeating such an arrangement could be difficult under current conditions.

Read the story on VTDigger here: National hatchery closure in Bethel has Vermont officials concerned.