Commissioner Joe Martens invites the public to visit the 150th anniversary celebration of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s (DEC) Caledonia fish hatchery located in located in Livingston County in the Village of Caledonia. Funded by Governor Cuomo’s NY Works III initiative, the celebration will highlight the more than $640,000 in improvements underway and planned at the hatchery.

Following remarks, the public is invited to participate in several activities including:

• Free Sportfishing Clinics - no fishing license required, and fishing rods, bait, and instruction will be provided.
• Hatchery tours provided by hatchery staff.
• Hot dogs and soda provided by the Livingston County Federation of Sportsman.
• Fly-tying and fly-casting demonstrations provided by the Seth Green Chapter of Trout
• Displays provided by the Rochester Historical Society, the Big Springs Museum from Caledonia, and the Livingston County Chamber of Commerce.

The Caledonia Fish Hatchery is responsible for stocking all or part of eight surrounding counties, including the western basin of Lake Ontario, the eastern basin of Lake Erie, and several Finger Lakes.

WHAT: 150th Anniversary Celebration of the DEC’s Caledonia Fish Hatchery

WHO: Patricia Riexinger, Director, DEC’s Division of Fish, Wildlife, and Marine Resources.

State and local officials, environmental and business leaders and researchers

WHEN: Saturday/Sunday, August 9/10, 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

WHERE: Caledonia State Fish Hatchery, 16 North Street, Caledonia, New York 14423

History of the Hatchery

The more than $640,000 in improvements underway and planned at the hatchery include the addition of two fully outfitted stocking trucks, paving, painting and new indoor rearing tanks. Caledonia Hatchery rears brown trout and rainbow trout including virtually all of the two-year-old brown trout used in DEC's stocking program for 13-15 inch trout. The hatchery is a fascinating place, steeped in history. Many of the buildings, including the main hatchery structure, date back to the 1870s. Many techniques developed at the hatchery for raising fish are still used today. The hatchery was established in 1864 by Seth Green, an early developer of fish culturing techniques. Green opened a fish market in Rochester but local fish populations had declined forcing him to go to Canada to obtain fish. He began experimenting with spawning fish artificially, and came up with the dry spawning technique—whereby eggs and milt are gently squeezed from spawning females and males—that is still used today. Green bought land in Caledonia, NY in 1864 and established the country’s first fish hatchery. In 1868 Seth Green was appointed to the first Fish Commission in New York. The Fish Commission leased some of the hatchery property and began raising fish to distribute to the public. Seth Green resigned from the Fish Commission in 1870 and was appointed the Superintendent of Fisheries. New York State bought the hatchery in 1875. Today, Caledonia produces the most pounds of fish of any of the State’s 12 fish hatcheries, averaging approximately 170,000 pounds of fish.

Directions to Caledonia: 16 North Street, Caledonia, New York 14423: The hatchery is located on Route 36 (North Street), one mile north of NYS Route 5