Fish hatchery retiree still hooked on work

By Cherry Sokoloski
North Forty News

After more than 30 years of raising fish, stripping eggs, dealing with whirling disease and braving the winter winds that roar down the Poudre Canyon, Arlene Ganek has retired. Or almost.

Ganek officially ended her career Jan. 31 as manager of the Poudre River State Fish Hatchery, located 40 miles up the Poudre Canyon and run by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. But she hasn't made a total break with the place. While she's reflecting on her life's work, she has also been volunteering at the hatchery.

The governor imposed a hiring freeze at all state agencies, so the hatchery staff is down to a crew of one. Needless to say, the facility is short-handed.

"You get your heart and soul invested in the place, and you can't just turn away," Ganek said.

When her volunteer hours decrease, Ganek has plenty of ideas for enjoying the freedom of retirement.

"I want to reconnect with myself," she said. "I want to spend more time with my horses and hobbies, like photography and woodworking. And, I want to spend more time with friends and family."

During her long career, Ganek had little time for most of those pursuits. She lived in a house at the hatchery, because someone must be on call 24/7 in case anything goes wrong. When equipment like a well pump malfunctions, there's no time to spare.

"If you don't get out there in 15 minutes, you have a lot of dead fish to pick up," she stated.

In earlier days, when the earthen ponds were full of fish, Ganek and others often had to pull all-nighters in the fall and winter. They worked in the cold to break slush, ice and leaves off the pond screens so fresh water would keep flowing.

"When you live and work in the same place, and you're a supervisor, the work becomes pretty all-consuming," Ganek noted. The work is also very physical, and after three decades it takes a toll on the body.

Steve Puttmann, a former DOW colleague who retired a few years ago, has great respect for Ganek and her hardiness.

"It's a tough place to work up there," he said.

He pointed out that in addition to running the hatchery, Ganek worked hard to be part of the Poudre Canyon's social fabric and culture. "Everyone knew her and respected her," he said.

Rewards of the work

Managing the hatchery has had its rewards. Ganek cited the important research on whirling disease and taking part in saving the greenback cutthroats, besides providing recreation opportunities for anglers of all ages.

She also finds it gratifying that she played a role in the future of Colorado's natural resources, as a mentor for the next generation of wildlife managers.

"If we don't have the next generation learning how important wildlife is, including mountain habitat and native species, all our work is for naught," she said.

Many of Ganek's former hatchery employees have gone on to successful careers in natural resources.

Ganek, who earned a zoology degree at Colorado State University, also opened the door for other women in the field. She was the first woman hired full-time in the hatchery section of the DOW.

As Ganek looks back on her career, a few golden days stand out above the others. One was the day she first went along on an airplane plant, when fingerlings raised from Poudre hatchery eggs were stocked in high-mountain lakes.

"That made it all come full circle for me," Ganek said. "It made a lot of hard work worthwhile." A colleague reported that she never looked so happy as she did that day.

She also enjoyed Kids Day fishing events at local lakes, when youngsters were able to catch fish stocked by the Poudre hatchery.

"I got to see kids catch their first big fish, with dad diving in to try to save it," she recalled with a laugh.

In her years at the hatchery, Ganek presided over huge changes at the facility, many of them the result of whirling disease.

When Ganek started full-time in 1980, the Poudre hatchery was a rearing unit, raising more than 400,000 rainbows and cuts each year to catchable size for stocking in Colorado waters. Then whirling disease arrived, and it was found that earthen ponds were breeding grounds for the WD parasite. The Poudre ponds went out of production, and the facility was threatened with closure until Ganek and friends rallied the troops in its defense.

To save the hatchery, Ganek had to change its purpose, from that of a rearing unit to primarily a brood fish operation. Since the late 1990s, the hatchery has kept different species of brood fish, from which eggs are stripped and fertilized. Most of the eggs are then shipped to other state facilities for hatching.

The Poudre hatchery produces four million to six million eggs each spring, including greenbacks and three varieties of rainbow trout.

Hofers, greenbacks

The brood fish operation has been important in the development of Hofer-cross rainbows, which are resistant to whirling disease and thus key to the recovery of a wild rainbow trout fishery. When the disease arrived in Colorado, it virtually wiped out populations of wild rainbows.

Ganek also noted that 750,000 greenback cuts - a once-threatened fish that is the only trout native to Colorado - are now stocked each year in high mountain lakes. Most of those fish originated from eggs at the Poudre hatchery.

Last year, wells were dug at the hatchery to make disease-free water available, another big step in the hatchery's evolution. The clean water is piped into the small new hatchery at the site, which can now incubate disease-free eggs. Ganek said the hatchery has been so successful that the DOW will likely build a larger hatchery at the site.

With lots of accomplishments under her belt, Ganek is ready for a less demanding schedule. She owns property not too far from the hatchery, and she's got plenty of projects lined up for the place. Like many retirees, she wants to do some traveling as well.

One can bet that Ganek will also have her fishing rod out from time to time. If she catches a wild rainbow or a greenback cut, she can feel a special sense of accomplishment, since she played a big part in the return of these fighting fish to Colorado