(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa D-N-R has already been keeping an eye on water temperatures for their urban trout stocking program, and now they are facing potential problems stocking the trout’s natural habitat. Northeast Iowa Fisheries Supervisor, Mike Siepker, says his team is cautious about when and where they’ll be stocking more than 300-thousand fish in area streams. “This is kind of uncharted territory. We’ve had droughts in the past, but for staff that are here now this is kind of a new thing where we’re dealing with these low stream conditions and what could potentially be a really warm summer,” as he says.

Trout thrive in cooler water. Many of the D-N-R’s hatcheries in the region rely on groundwater reserves, which are also low and could also be a problem.  “They’re spring-fed flows that feed the hatcheries, so we’ve already had discussions at the hatcheries that if the droughts continue, how will we adjust our practices at the hatchery to take advantage of the water that we have,” Siepker says.

Siepker says one of solutions is staggering the 18-month hatching and growth window across multiple sites, which would ultimately use less water. They D-N-R also stocks one to two-thousand trout in nine different lakes around the state as a way to introduce people to trout fishing. They are watching the water temperatures in those lakes, as lower water levels and unseasonably high temperatures could warm the lakes up.