HATCHERY UPDATE

Joel Topham, Roaring River natural resource manager, listed a number of items the park staff have completed in the past year.

They include:

n Power washing all the decking on Deer Leap n Renovation of cabin No. 7, including new flooring and shower

n Painted 15 lower-level bathrooms at the Inn

n Upgraded seven PTAC units at the Inn

n In shower house 3, painted new flooring that is less slippery, redid fans, put in two new hot water heaters and upgraded the electrical panel n Completed two controlled burns, one in the pollinator area and another in Ketchum Hollow East

n New campsite signs installed for people to more quickly determine campsite amenities

For more information about Roaring River State Park, people may visit

www.mostateparks.com/park/ roaring-river-state-park

Aaron | adobestock.com

Construction at Hatchery Completed

Park Ready for Opening Day

A paving project, redoing campgrounds throughout the park, is set to begin after March 15, when the weather warms up.

Movie Night Under the Stars is set to return this summer, with tentative dates scheduled for June 18, July 16 and Aug. 20.

Bluegrass Nights in the Park are also coming back, with a schedule not yet determined. t took almost a year-

Iand-a-half longer than expected, but the Roaring River Hatchery’s construction project has been completed, and the facility is moving back to its normal operations.

The $1.9 million project wrapped up in January 2021, replacing all flood gates in the spring pool, the pipeline into the hatchery and installing a traveling screen to catch debris from the pool before it enters the hatchery. During construction, the Hatchery was forced to stock fish from other hatcheries, which Manager Paul Spurgeon said is a process he’s happy to minimize.

“We finished up all the construction and are back to full production,” he said. “We always have to bring a few in from other places, but when breeding here, we have a lot more control of the sizes of the fish, and overall it will be better for our fishermen.”

Spurgeon said during the season, the Hatchery stocks 2.25 fish per angler per day.

“We try to anticipate tag sales and hit that as best we can,” he said. “It hasn’t been a big challenge, but a lot of days last year, we were stocking a lot of fish in the middle of the week.”

Spurgeon said the outcome of the construction project has been excellent.

“We now have a steady water supply that is clean, and a lot of the project was fixing failing infrastructure,” he said. “We did add that traveling screen, and that will save us a lot of time having to clean debris out of the water.”

Spurgeon said the stream itself, which the Hatchery manages as a part of the Missouri Department of Conservation, is in great shape and ready for the season.

“The last few years, we’ve been digging out after floods,” he said. “It seemed like as soon as we got it right, another one hit. So, we’ve spent a lot of resources on keeping the stream in good shape. We’re all finished up now and ready to go.”

Topham said looking ahead to Opening Day, there are some other projects in the works or being finished up.

At the new fish-cleaning station, crews are removing the hand-held nozzles and installing more traditional faucets. Topham said the change aims to give people cleaning fish more clear areas for each person to work.

A paving project, redoing campgrounds throughout the park, is set to begin after March 15, when the weather warms up.

Topham said he is also still waiting on supplies for the donor wall next to the station, which he hopes to complete this fishing season.

Crews still have two more controlled burns to complete this year, one at Big Sugar Creek and another on Unit 4 at Roaring River.

Movie Night Under the Stars is set to return this summer, with tentative dates scheduled for June 18, July 16 and Aug. 20.

Bluegrass nights in the park are also coming back, with a schedule not yet determined.