Tim Alpers’s latest project: creating a new trout hatchery at Conway Ranch
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 15, 2008 at 1:46 pmFrom the Los Angeles Times:
Beyond this tiniest of Eastern Sierra communities is a parcel of barren wilderness soon to be nourished by high-mountain snowmelt and teeming with colorful life. Conway Ranch used to raise cattle. Now it’s the domain of coyotes, watched over by eagles and completely ignored by motorists whizzing by on U.S. 395. But barring lengthy bureaucratic snags, it’ll soon house the region’s largest and most ambitious private trout hatchery.
The transformation has begun. Earthen raceways are dug. One is watered and brimming with fat rainbows, luring eagles to nearby power poles, perched like vultures. Brown and cutthroat trout also will be raised here and stocked in area waters.
Meantime, the Inland Aquaculture Group of investors irons out details with Mono County, which haggles with LADWP, DFG, USFWS, NRCS, SCE, BLM and other agencies with ties to the land, water and wildlife. The Inland Aquaculture Group is Tim Alpers, who sold his Owens River ranch and hatchery last December; John Frederickson, who owns concessions at June Lake and Crowley Lake; and Orange County businessman Steve Brown. They’ve leased 835 acres of property purchased recently by Mono County with $2 million in grant money.
Dan Lyster, director of economic development for Mono County, hopes the project will be a boon to the region. After all, visiting anglers — most of them from the Southern California — account for 60% of the Eastern Sierra economy, according to one study.
Read more form Pete Thomas’s “On the Outdoors” column in the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
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