Recovery efforts begin after flooding at Jim Hinkle Spring River Hatchery

The Jim Hinkle Spring River Hatchery in Mammoth Spring saw a lot of damage in April as large amounts of rainfall flooded portions of the building and set back trout production. During the last few weeks, crews have been busy digging out the hatchery and have already begun some recovery.

Jason Miller, assistant chief of the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s (AGFC) Fisheries Division says “We honestly had to do a lot of work just to get to a place where we could assess how much work we had to do. The Commission authorized $500,000 to get us started on both the hatchery recovery and the initial work on other infrastructure throughout eastern Arkansas, but we won’t know the total cost of renovation until we can get a few more inspections complete now that we’ve cleared off a lot of debris.”

Roads and concrete foundations were compromised in the flood and during cleanup, staff removed 26 dump truck loads of silt from the silos and raceways where trout are grown.

The next order of business is the removal and inspection of two large screens which catch and remove vegetation on the inlets from the Spring River.

Another uncertainty is the condition of the dam which sits just upstream of the hatchery. Miller says “We know there are some large pieces of debris sitting against that dam, but we don’t know what condition the dam is in under the water. We’re going to have to send some divers down to do a thorough inspection and formulate a plan for any work that needs to be done there. This is extremely dangerous work, so it’s expensive, and justifiably so.”

While a lot of fish either died or were flushed out of the hatchery during the flood, it was not a total loss. An estimated 150,000 rainbow trout remained on the hatchery once floodwaters receded. Trout management staff plan to do what they can to stretch the remaining stock through the fishing year.

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