Economic Impact of McNenny State Fish Hatchery, Spearfish, South Dakota, USA

Abstract

McNenny State Fish Hatchery, rural Spearfish, South Dakota, USA produces trout and salmon for stocking into public recreational fishing waters in South Dakota. Hatchery operations at McNenny are funded solely by the sale of hunting and fishing licenses and an excise tax on fishing equipment. This study evaluated the monetary contribution of hatchery expenditures and fish production to the local economy of South Dakota for calendar year 2017. The economic value of the fish raised at McNenny State Fish Hatchery in 2017 was calculated to be $6,609,576.03 USD. When added to the estimated McNenny share of angler expenditures in the Black Hills National Forest, the total local monetary impact of McNenny State Fish Hatchery operations and fish stocking was slightly more than $22 million. Based on annual hatchery expenditures, McNenny operations generated $51.68 of local economic output for every budgetary dollar spent in 2017.

Economic Impact of Cleghorn Springs State Fish Hatchery, Rapid City, South Dakota, USA

“…Cleghorn Springs State Fish Hatchery in Rapid City, South Dakota, USA, expenditures, fish production, and fish stocking data were used to evaluate the local (within South Dakota) economic impact of the hatchery using the following methodology, which was originally developed by Barnes and Palmer (2019). Actual expenditure data from 2019, minus out-of-state expenditures, was used for the economic analysis.…”

“…Capital was put back into South Dakota businesses and directly reinvested into the local economy, therefore this data was considered local economic output. Expenditures for fish food, computer hardware, and specialized scientific equipment procured from out-of-state vendors, were excluded, in addition to any large, one-time construction project expenditures ( Barnes and Palmer, 2019).…”

“…The values of all of the fish from the hatchery stocked in 2019 were included in the analysis along with the local expenditures. Because Cleghorn Springs State Fish Hatchery is funded entirely from the sale of fishing licenses and an excise tax on fishing equipment, all of the rainbow trout, Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), and Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) stocked in 2019 went into public fishing waters within the state of South Dakota (Barnes & Palmer, 2019;SDGFP, 2019a).…”

“…Dalton et al (1998) found anglers are willing to pay more for larger fish and Whitehead and Aiken (2007) estimated this increase to be 3.5% more per cm in trout length greater than 23 cm, therefore the inflation-adjusted base value was increased accordingly for the rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon at each stocking size. For the economic value of the trout stocked, the value of the expenditures per day for anglers in the Black Hills National Forest of South Dakota ($74.93/day, and a total of 2,984,192 angler days per year) was multiplied by the percent share (37.7%) of the fish stocked from Cleghorn Springs hatchery of all the fish stocked in the Black Hills National Forest (Barnes & Palmer, 2019;ASA, 2007). Chinook salmon production differs from the other fish species because they are stocked at a much smaller size and expected to grow for several years before being caught by recreational anglers (Barnes & Palmer, 2019).…”

“…Hatchery-reared fish, such as rainbow trout and other salmonids, stocked into public fishing waters, can have considerable economic benefits (Johnson & Walsh, 1987;Caudill, 2005Caudill, , 2007USFWS, 2006 into public fishing waters in South Dakota (SDGFP, 2019a). Barnes and Palmer (2019) conducted one of the few economic analyses on an individual state fish hatchery. Economic impacts have been quantified for trout production on the federal level in the United States (USFWS, 2006) and for individual fisheries maintained by hatchery-produced fish (Johnson & Walsh, 1987;Caudill, 2007).…”