FLETCHER, N.C. (Sept. 17, 2004) — The aftermath of one hurricane and the specter of another washed out the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission’s plans at a fair, wildlife education center and four trout hatcheries in Western North Carolina.

The Wildlife Commission on Wednesday disassembled its Mountain State Fair exhibit in Fletcher, N.C., near Asheville, after working the first five days of the 10-day event.

The threat of Hurricane Ivan forced the Wildlife Commission to close its fair exhibit early, freeing personnel to prepare for possible hurricane damage — at Commission facilities and elsewhere. Wildlife officers often are called in for flooding patrol and rescue operations, making them unavailable for fair breakdown duties as a hurricane nears.

In neighboring Brevard County, the Wildlife Commission’s Pisgah Center for Wildlife Education closed Sept. 8 due to flooding from Hurricane Frances. The Pisgah Center re-opened Sept. 14 on a limited basis. The public can access the center’s nature trail and parking lot, but the rest rooms and auditorium are closed, and programming has been suspended indefinitely, pending the effects of Hurricane Ivan.

Wildlife Commission fish hatcheries absorbed the biggest blow from Hurricane Frances, losing more than 100,000 trout at the Pisgah, Table Rock, Marion and Armstrong state fish hatcheries.

The timing of the fish kills — just weeks before the first scheduled stockings for the delayed harvest season — concerned wildlife officials, who said efforts were under way to ensure fish-stocking schedules would be met this fall.

“We lost a lot of fish, but our plan is to stock more than 700,000 trout, and we have opportunities to make gains against those losses,” said Carl Kittel, coldwater production coordinator for the Commission’s Division of Inland Fisheries. “We won’t be doing anything like taking a stream off the stocking schedule or reducing the number of stockings at a particular stream.”

Hurricane Frances wreaked different kinds of havoc at each of the Wildlife Commission’s mountain hatcheries. The Pisgah Hatchery near Brevard in Transylvania County received large amounts of sediment because of mudslides in the area. The Table Rock Hatchery near Morganton in Burke County lost access to a water-supply reservoir, which was drained when its dam sustained heavy damage. A dam spillway at the Marion Hatchery in McDowell County suffered some erosion, but it continues to hold.

The Armstrong Hatchery near Spruce Pine is in danger of losing an access road due to erosion. Armstrong also suffered water-intake problems from Hurricane Frances, when water flowed around a dam instead of over it.

“Ironically, we lost a lot of fish at Pisgah due to lack of water during a 15-inch rain,” Kittel said. “The dissolved oxygen dropped because of the low water, and we started losing fish.”

Kittel said the Wildlife Commission will conduct all of its planned trout stockings associated with the delayed harvest program.

“Hurricane Frances will have some kind of effect on our trout program for a year or more, but it won’t affect our stocking dates, times or locations, and it’ll only affect our stocking rates by 10 percent at the most,” Kittel said. “As long as Ivan doesn’t hit us directly, we should be OK.”

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