another hatchery would pull up to the same spot 

 and make a plant of 6-inch trout. This and many 

 other comparable situations were reducing the 

 efficiency of the hatcheries so, recognizing the 

 need for a closer correlation between all inter- 

 ested agencies, the whole fish distribution scheme 

 was critically reviewed during the spring of 1941 

 by members of the Forest Service, the National 

 Park Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service and 

 the Montana Fish and Game Commission. This 

 review showed that there was need for a closer 

 correlation between the national forest lands and 

 the private outside lands in the matters of juris- 

 diction of fish distribution. 



It was also pointed out, as mentioned before, 

 that there was a definite overlapping of respon- 

 sibility and duplication of effort among all of 

 the agencies involved. The 1 1 State hatcheries in 

 Montana had no definite areas of responsibility; 

 neither did the three Federal hatcheries belonging 

 to the Fish and Wildlife Service. As fish distri- 

 bution was carried on, each State hatchery over- 

 lapped its neighbors to a certain extent, and the 

 Federal hatcheries overlapped all of those be- 

 longing to the State. The confusion, duplication 

 of effort, excess travel, and all the other ills in- 

 herent in a system where a lack of correlation 

 exists were prevalent. Requests for fish by the 

 Forest Service were made to both State and Fed- 

 eral hatcheries. These requests were often dupli- 

 cated by the local Rod and Gun Clubs. Superin- 

 tendents of both State and Federal hatcheries 

 often received identical requests for fish planting 

 in the same waters from both the Forest Service 

 and the local Rod and Gun Clubs. 



In past years, both State and Federal hatch- 

 eries have been subjected to all of the pressures 

 that could be applied ,and their function was de- 

 termined primarily by these pressures. It was 

 almost impossible for them to give real thought 

 to effective fish planting, but rather their efforts 

 necessarily had to be directed toward alleviating 

 the pressures under which they were striving. 

 In consequence, the fisheries' resource in itself 

 was a secondary issue. 



In the above mentioned conference it was 

 agreed that: 



1. The State Superintendent of Fisheries 

 would act as coordinator of all fish planting ac- 

 tivities within the State regardless of whether 

 the fish were produced in the State or Federal 

 hatcheries. 



2. The State would be divided into hatchery 

 districts for fish planting. 



3. The districts would be determined pri- 

 marily by the hatchery production and the waters 

 in need of stocking. The divisions would be made 

 on drainage lines without regard to land owner- 

 ship. 



4. Fish planting plans for each district would 

 be developed by the Forest Service and the Fish 

 and Game Commission on a cooperative basis. 



The State of Montana was divided into 14 

 districts. A 15th district was made of Yellow- 

 stone National Park, since there is very close co- 

 operation in fish planting activities between Yel- 

 lowstone Park and the State of Montana. These 

 boundaries were set up tentatively and discussed 

 with each of the hatchery superintendents in order 



Taking- Lock Leven and Rainbow Trout spawn in the Madison River above Hebgen Lake. 



Each year sufficient egg's are collected at this station to supply the need of all the 



hatcheries in Montana for these two species. 



