# Trump Swings the Axe on Lake Trout



## slightofhand

Announced today, 2018 funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will be slashed 97% from 300 million to 10 million. With it, goes all of the funding used to run the Federal US Fish & Wildlife Lake Trout hatcheries funded by the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C570GOqWYAI6tUH.jpg

Sturgeon, and all the other "intrinsic value" restoration projects are also done. With federal lake trout stocking coming to a screeching halt in 2018, what pleasant surprises will sportsmen have in store for the resurgence of Alewife?

To learn more about the incestuous ties between the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the US Fish & Wildlife Service, and Tribes....read along here

https://www.fws.gov/glri/documents/GLRIBook2015.pdf

Or you can view this fantastic spreadsheet of how YOUR tax dollars are being frivolously spent on some extremely ridiculous programs. Use the "find" tool in your favorite spreadsheet program for "lake trout" and you too can see exactly how many federal dollars have been spent to suppress and mostly eradicate alewife in the great lakes through "restoration" of Lake Trout.

https://www.glri.us//projects/fws-201609.xlsx

Trump's cut will put basically all of that spreadsheet with ongoing projects on their death beds.

Looking forward to hearing about the new predator stocking levels for 2018 by the Lake Michigan committee.


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## fishallday44

Is this a sick joke? Haven't looked into it yet but hope it's for real. 

Thanks for posting.


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## slightofhand

fishallday44 said:


> Is this a sick joke? Haven't looked into it yet but hope it's for real.
> 
> Thanks for posting.


Real deal....GLRI is number two at the top of the list for a reason, and is the BIGGEST slush fund for tribes, usgs, us fish and wildlife. 300 million, nothing else comes close! No wonder these native activists are running around like chickens with their heads cut off! Just look at that spreadsheet and see how many federal agencies and indian tribes have their hands digging into that massive federal trough. Its all going to disappear! And to the benefit of alewife and most importantly...browns, steelhead, coho and kings!


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## jpmarko

Where did you get this?


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## slightofhand

jpmarko said:


> Where did you get this?


Get what? The proposed glri cuts? The spreadsheet with the federal slush fund dollars going to tribes and every states DNR and almost every federal agency including USGS, Fish and Wildlife and more?

The cuts to the EPA were announced here

https://twitter.com/GreatLakesEcho


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## jpmarko

slightofhand said:


> Get what? The proposed glri cuts? The spreadsheet with the federal slush fund dollars going to tribes and every states DNR and almost every federal agency including USGS, Fish and Wildlife and more?
> 
> The cuts to the EPA were announced here
> 
> https://twitter.com/GreatLakesEcho


Yeah, that's what I was looking for. Thanks.


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## jpmarko

I wonder if this will impact stocking of other fish, i.e. steelhead, kings, coho, brown trout, atlantics? Things are gonna get interesting.


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## slightofhand

jpmarko said:


> I wonder if this will impact stocking of other fish, i.e. steelhead, kings, coho, brown trout, atlantics? Things are gonna get interesting.


Absolutely. You gut the lake trout program, you take those mouths out of the system. Now Jim Dexter can try to block you and not let you harvest lake trout anymore, you know, to protect his legacy. But we all know how to practice lake trout catch and release lol! Save an alewife!!


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## jpmarko

Yeah, but does any of this money go toward steelhead, kings, coho, browns, or atlantics? Does the DNR draw funds from this money for stocking and management of silver fish?


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## RedM2

jpmarko said:


> Yeah, but does any of this money go toward steelhead, kings, coho, browns, or atlantics? Does the DNR draw funds from this money for stocking and management of silver fish?


I could honestly care less if any of it goes to those fish... let the state ask the sportsmen if they want to pay extra to have the fish we want planted. I'd gladly pay $50, $60, $70, whatever per year for my license if they'd stop planting lakers and plant what we collectively want.


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## slightofhand

jpmarko said:


> Yeah, but does any of this money go toward steelhead, kings, coho, browns, or atlantics? Does the DNR draw funds from this money for stocking and management of silver fish?


No, none of it does. Feds hate anything that indians don't want. Feds don't care about sportfisheries, they care about commercial fisheries for tribes. Jay Wesley is your man for browns, steelhead, coho and kings. Ask him about it.


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## GettinBucky

Although I am totally for stopping the ridicules amount of lake trout that are being stocked in the great lakes....the GLRI also spent money on invasive species like Asian Carp. Hopefully the remaining funds will be spent on keeping those dreaded fish out of our waters. Maybe Trump will shut down the shipping to the Mississippi....to keep them out.


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## WoodyMG

Lot of good things probably got cut with the bad. Would rather have seen thoughtful cuts.


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## RonSwanson

GettinBucky said:


> Although I am totally for stopping the ridicules amount of lake trout that are being stocked in the great lakes....the GLRI also spent money on invasive species like Asian Carp. Hopefully the remaining funds will be spent on keeping those dreaded fish out of our waters. Maybe Trump will shut down the shipping to the Mississippi....to keep them out.


He does like walls and stopping criminal aliens from destroying our country.


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## jpmarko

This is certainly a new twist of events. It will be interesting to see how the DNR responds. I'm curious to hear Jay chime in.


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## slightofhand

GettinBucky said:


> Although I am totally for stopping the ridicules amount of lake trout that are being stocked in the great lakes....the GLRI also spent money on invasive species like Asian Carp. Hopefully the remaining funds will be spent on keeping those dreaded fish out of our waters. Maybe Trump will shut down the shipping to the Mississippi....to keep them out.


I think I read that he was still looking closely at that, and specifically asked the Corps of Engineers to take a closer look at that plan. I would say the one thing he could spend that last 10 million a year on would be cutting off the chicago waterway system from Lake Michigan. The rest of it could go. Let alewife and the sporfishes that rely upon them flourish. There could be some state battles against Dexter and his penchant for saving lake trout. Sportsmen would need to fight to protect salmon stocking/reproduction, while still doing their part to dramatically reduce the trout that are already in the lake, down to more manageable and reasonable levels.


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## slightofhand

WoodyMG said:


> Lot of good things probably got cut with the bad. Would rather have seen thoughtful cuts.


You can't trust the federal govt to do anything responsibly with federal tax dollars. The epa should have been shut down after the water got cleaned up in the great lakes which was eons ago. Instead, it became bloated with native tree hugging activists, and you end up with ridiculous clown shows like 95% of what is listed on that spreadsheet. I mean, Michigan State University, NOAA, Coast Guard, every native american tribe imaginable, Forest Service, Fish & Wildlife...they are all fatties at the trough lapping it up to pay themselves salaries. Where sportsman got screwed was when Dexter got his fat fingers in the pie with the tribes and kept the lake trout ball rolling when he was appointed to his job. He won't be missed, will be glad to see him go.


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## someone11

I like how you turned this into a lake trout discussion when defunding of the glri goes wayyyy beyond lake trout. Sad.


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## Trunkslammer

Wow this could be a game changer, maybe the empty lake trout facilities could be purchased by the state and used to raise fish we want.


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## slightofhand

someone11 said:


> I like how you turned this into a lake trout discussion when defunding of the glri goes wayyyy beyond lake trout. Sad.


This is the michigan sportsmans forum, not the ridiculous marsh wasteland restoration forum, or dam removal forum, or tribes subsidies forum. So we talk about sportfishes and the obstacles to their survival here, in this case, rampant lake trout stocking designed to suppress alewife.


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## slightofhand

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Ever used a NOAA satellite map?
> 
> The salmon fin clipping / wire tagging stopped but they were planning on tagging steelhead instead.


What does a weather satellite map have to do with glri funding? NOAA has their own budget for WEATHER RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES not native species restoration or climate change activism. Same with the Coast Guard, etc. Bloated bureaucracies is what they have become. The private market provides more than enough weather related information, NOAA should be shut down tomorrow imo. Steelhead tagging is not necessary either. Chop the head off a steelhead, mail it to lansing, and someone in the DNR will do an otolith test on it to tell you what stream it likely originated from. That easy....no federal tag necessary. Who cares anyway, a steelhead is a steelhead regardless of where it was stocked.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Can't wait until CRP funding gets slashed, upland bird and duck populations plummet, and our streams fill up with silt.

Steelhead are the silver fish of the future. Any information the DNR can gather on them would be most welcome.


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## Far Beyond Driven

With these savings we could buy 2.2 F-35 fighters or 0.24% of a new aircraft carrier, just for perspective, development costs not amortized.


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## slightofhand

Far Beyond Driven said:


> With these savings we could buy 2.2 F-35 fighters or 0.24% of a new aircraft carrier, just for perspective, development costs not amortized.


I'll take the two fighters and free weather data from accuweather. No climate change injecture needed.


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## slightofhand

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Can't wait until CRP funding gets slashed, upland bird and duck populations plummet, and our streams fill up with silt.
> 
> Steelhead are the silver fish of the future. Any information the DNR can gather on them would be most welcome.


Well if you want to get all "native only" on us, then just let nature run its course. Cut all of it and see what survives. There isn't a biologist in this country who could sit on their hands long enough until they're compelled to start picking winners and losers (like we have here with salmon vs lake trout)


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## RedM2

someone11 said:


> Read the little blue oval at the bottom right https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sou...DNxsNG0USVIjlcLMA&sig2=mVXYzjadbhm0MmfUKGSBIA


I was most interested in the atlantics part of the comment. Also, what progress have they made with stopping the invasives with their monitoring? I don't see any required annual reporting of the impact their invasive monitoring is having. Maybe I don't know where to find it, which is entirely possible. If mass marking is that valuable to the MDNR, let them ask sportsmen for the funds. The scale of lake trout program is a big mistake... let those who want them fund it (I say this because it's such a small number of people who want them). Let the tribes open up their coffers.


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## the rapids

https://www.glri.us//

Folks can visit this site and see all of the work done via this initiative which has broad bipartisan support. Are there some projects that you might not agree with? I bet there are but overwhelmingly this program has provided matching funding to very important projects which are making a tangible difference in the great Lakes watershed.


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## Far Beyond Driven

Superfund sites, many of which touch river mouth lakes or are the bottom of the rivers that flow into the lakes? Are these funded through this via the EPA?


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## Far Beyond Driven

Lamprey control, as well as other invasive species?


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## EZDUZIT

cut lake trout plantings. plant steelhead!!! Also if most of coho are being caught in wisconsin and Illinois , let them plant them.


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## RonSwanson

slightofhand said:


> What does a weather satellite map have to do with glri funding? NOAA has their own budget for WEATHER RELATED PRODUCTS AND SERVICES not native species restoration or climate change activism. Same with the Coast Guard, etc. Bloated bureaucracies is what they have become. The private market provides more than enough weather related information, NOAA should be shut down tomorrow imo. Steelhead tagging is not necessary either. Chop the head off a steelhead, mail it to lansing, and someone in the DNR will do an otolith test on it to tell you what stream it likely originated from. That easy....no federal tag necessary. Who cares anyway, a steelhead is a steelhead regardless of where it was stocked.


This is sarcasm, right? If you cannot see the value of tracking weather, climate, and water conditions within a lake or understanding how fish move through a system would benefit resource managers and ultimately sportsman, you are naive. Maybe willful ignorant. 

I'm sure those private market apps get nothing from NOAA...


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## mf2

Top 20 recipients of GLRI funds in the time period of 2010 thru 2016 listed below. Values are in US dollars. Some locations received multiple grants under different names, for example County of Wayne, and City of Detroit. US EPA received $248,675,527 while the next 19 recipients on the list got $223,936,496 combined. 

U.S. EPA: 248,675,527
Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources: 34,563,948
Great Lakes Fishery Commission: 26,874,703
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency: 26,841,445
Michigan Dept of Environmental Quality: 26,329,778
Central Michigan University: 14,567,621
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency: 8,743,572
Clarkson University: 8,278,500
University of Minnesota: 8,143,229
Michigan Department of Environmental Quality: 8,119,400
New York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation: 7,248,447
Indiana Department of Environmental Management: 7,003,236
The Nature Conservancy: 6,939,782
Indiana University: 6,630,550
Ohio Department of Natural Resources: 6,608,000
County of Wayne: 6,500,000
Macomb County (MI)- Public Works: 5,652,000
Cornell University: 5,059,211
Michigan State University: 4,985,802
Illinois Department of Natural Resources: 4,847,272


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## mf2

These are the top 20 specific projects in terms of funds received through the same period. 



Great Lakes Legacy Act (Grand Calumet River Area of Concern): 49,204,111
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Milwaukee Estuary Area of Concern): 27,745,337
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Grand Calumet River AOC): 24,655,563
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Sheboygan River Area of Concern): 23,878,903
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Milwaukee Estuary AOC): 20,000,000
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Buffalo River): 19,368,568
Great Lakes Legacy Act Menominee River Remediation, Menominee River AOC: 13,373,371
Great Lakes Legacy Act support (Multi-AOC ): 12,999,789
Great Lakes Coastal Wetland Monitoring: 10,000,000
Great Lakes Fishery Commission: 9,149,225
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Muskegan Lake Area of Concern): 9,008,149
Great Lakes Legacy Act (Raisin River Area of Concern): 7,302,238
Wisconsin LaMP and RAP Support: 7,101,515
Sea Lamprey Control Ttechniques: 7,000,000
Menekaunee Harbor, Sheboygan River AOC Verification, And Other Aoc Assessments: 6,565,382
Powell Creek Nutrient Reduction Project: 6,527,152
Rouge River Aoc Wayne County Habitat Restoration: 6,500,000
Macomb County Habitat Restoration: Partridge Creek Commons, McBride Drain, & Clinton River Spillway: 6,300,000
Supporting Ohio Clean Lakes Initiative: Impaired Watershed Restoration: 5,940,000
Fish Monitoring and Surveillance: 5,678,500


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## jpmarko

How much goes toward lake trout rehabilitation?


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## mf2

Can't find any text that would indicate any of these projects have to do with lake trout planting. I'll do some more looking, but this information I got from the Excell spread sheet from the EPA web site so I don't have the same info as anyone else, unless you work for govt.


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## Cork Dust

Far Beyond Driven said:


> Superfund sites, many of which touch river mouth lakes or are the bottom of the rivers that flow into the lakes? Are these funded through this via the EPA?


Pruitt stated that the Superfund and Brownfields Legislation clean-up initiatives are to remain in place in some capacity for EPA.


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## Cork Dust

jpmarko said:


> How much goes toward lake trout rehabilitation?


Directly? A little over a million dollars of the annual allocation. Some additional monies are directed at Federal Hatchery infrastructure repair and maintenance.


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## mf2

It looks like they have the lake trout planting funds wrapped up into broader projects. The list from the epa shows a couple of projects for Great Lakes fishery Commission with descriptions like this 
"This award will allow Great Lakes Fishery Commission to fund the following activities: 1) enhancing and managing sea lamprey control by exploiting sea lamprey chemosensory communication; 2) restoring and managing fish species through use of an acoustic telemetry observing system; 3) providing grants for Great Lakes restoration of native fish; and 4) selective fish passage."


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## jpmarko

mf2 said:


> It looks like they have the lake trout planting funds wrapped up into broader projects. The list from the epa shows a couple of projects for Great Lakes fishery Commission with descriptions like this
> "This award will allow Great Lakes Fishery Commission to fund the following activities: 1) enhancing and managing sea lamprey control by exploiting sea lamprey chemosensory communication; 2) restoring and managing fish species through use of an acoustic telemetry observing system; 3) providing grants for Great Lakes restoration of native fish; and 4) selective fish passage."


So about 1 million dollars annually toward 1) sea lamprey control, 2) acoustic telemetry surveys, 3) restoration of native fish, and 4) fish passages? The cut should leave 10 million annually, which is plenty enough to cover those. Lake trout planting could continue unimpeded.

Cessation of the lake trout stocking program would be the only good thing to come out of the budget cut. A lot of good programs would go away. Ironically, cessation of lake trout stocking is probably the single greatest factor that could improve the health of the lake. 

I'm sure they'll find a way to continue stocking lake trout. After all, they'll still receive 10 million dollars annually.


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## Cork Dust

Essentially, should the budget cuts go through intact, with no reductions or dilution, fish that are currently alive and in raceways will receive priority support to rear to plant-out date.


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