Four years ago, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) contracted with an engineering firm to determine repair costs for the state's 15 fish hatcheries.
Eleven of the hatcheries are "cool water,'' meaning they produce walleyes and muskies, and four are "cold water'' that produce fish such as trout.
By widespread agreement, the hatcheries have been in tough shape for many years — "held together by baling wire and duct tape,'' as one observer describes them.
