Hatchery undergoes $5.6 million renovation

James Civiello, general manager of the hatchery, said matching funds from the state Department of Conservation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Sportfish Restoration Program have made it possible to construct an additional 2,000-square-foot building for hatching and raising trout up to three inches.

Other new features to the fish hatchery include: 28 concrete runways for a total of 64 runways; a fish ladder to make an easier path for brown trout to reach the hatchery for breeding; updated public restrooms; and a liquid oxygen injection system to allow the hatchery to produce larger trout. The hatchery wants to increase the size of the trout to 12 K inches from 10 K inches before release.

Civiello said the hatchery also is building aluminum predator control structures to keep out the predatory wildlife.

“We were losing about 30,000 fish a year to the Blue Herons,” he said.

Branco Enterprises of Neosho is the builder, and the consulting engineer and scientist for the project is FishPro Inc. of Springfield, Ill.

Shepherd of the Hills Hatchery holds 1.4 million fish. The hatchery releases 475,000 rainbow trout into Lake Taneycomo each year. The remaining eggs and release-size fish go to other Missouri streams.