When his job is busy – which, with hundreds of thousands of fish to feed, monitor and rear, it usually is – Fred Trasko often finds himself immersed in myriad tasks that a fish hatchery manager must oversee.

But some days, things are different.

On those cold mornings at the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery, when steam rises from the chilly holding tanks into the more frigid winter air … when all is quiet … when it’s just Trasko and a few hundred thousand Atlantic salmon … he gets a chance to enjoy his surroundings a bit more.

And it’s at those times when the hatchery manager takes a deep breath, takes a look around, and smiles at the efforts he and his crew make every day of the year.

“One of the things I find really enjoyable is, early in the morning, you have all these Atlantic salmon around you,” Trasko said. “It’s kind of like a shepherd and his flock, so to speak.”

Most of the time, however, the job involves everyday tasks like rearing fish … and figuring out inventive ways to save money.

Today Trasko will get the chance to show the public some of the advancements the Green Lake crew has come up with over the past few years when the hatchery staff and the Friends of the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery team up to host an open house.

The open house will run from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m., and a variety of exhibits, displays and demonstrations are on tap.

Hatchery tours will run all day (Trasko points out the facility is open to self-guided tours all year long for curious visitors), and the friends group will whip up a free barbecue that begins at 11:30.

Trasko is justifiably proud of the federal Green Lake facility, which is much larger than most of the state-run hatcheries people may have visited in the past.

“To kind of put it in context, a lot of the other smaller hatcheries, like the state hatcheries, were built in the 1950s to rear smaller numbers of fish,” Trasko said.

The Green Lake hatchery was opened in 1974, and was designed to be a large-scale production hatchery.

Take one look around the massive main building and even a casual observer will realize that’s exactly what it is.

“You could probably rear most of the state production for all the species at this one facility,” he said.

Trasko said that when the hatchery is at peak production, it uses 12 million gallons of water, gravity-fed from nearby Green Lake, each day.

The result?

“We produce about 650,000Atlantic salmon smolts [per year], which are about a six- to eight-inch fish,” Trasko said.

Trasko doesn’t want all the credit, however. Green Lake National Fish Hatchery is just one of three parts of the Maine Fisheries Complex. Other facilities include the Craig Brook National Fish Hatchery and the Maine Fisheries Resource Office, both located in East Orland.

The Green Lake hatchery receives its eggs from Craig Brook, then embarks on a 17-month effort to produce the smolts that are released into rivers and streams.

All of which is rewarding … but only a piece of the puzzle, Trasko cautions.

“At a hatchery you’re doing something that you can equate with a direct result. We’re growing fish. We’re putting the fish into rivers and streams, and we’re getting an adult return from those fish,” he said.

“While we realize that’s not the answer, because habitat and clean water are the answer, it still makes you feel very confident and [it’s] kind of a good feeling just to know that you’re helping things out,” he said.

Green Lake National Fish Hatchery is located seven miles north of Ellsworth on Route 180. Take Route 1A from Bangor toward Ellsworth, turn left onto Route 180 at Sunrise Glass in Ellsworth Falls, and look for the Green Lake National Fish Hatchery sign on the left after the Graham Lake dam.

Any-deer drawing nears

Each year, many of Maine’s deer hunters eagerly await a day that will help determine the success of their autumn forays afield.

Get lucky in September, and your chance to get lucky in November will increase.

All you have to do is have your name pulled from the electronic hopper during the state’s annual any-deer permit drawing.

On Friday, the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife will issue 70,725 any-deer permits, which allow a hunter to shoot does, as well as bucks.

Due to space constraints, you won’t get to see those results in the pages of this paper (remember, printing fewer than 3,000 names in the annual moose hunt eats up several pages each year). You can, however, find the information at the DIF&W Web site: www.mefishwildlife.com.

In some state-run lotteries, your chances of success are pretty slim. In this one, nearly everybody (except, apparently, me) will win.

This year 85,451 hunters signed up for the permits, including 48,341 who took advantage of the state’s on-line application service.

State officials are pleased with the increasing popularity of the state’s on-line option, in part because every time a hunter registers for a lottery on the Internet, it reduces the cost of processing an application by hand and re-entering the data.

In 2003, 42 percent of applicants for the any-deer lottery registered on-line. A year ago, that number increased to 48 percent. And this year, 57 percent registered for the drawing on the Internet.

“People are realizing the ease and convenience of applying on-line,” DIF&W Commissioner Dan Martin said in a news release.

Having begun registering for the state’s wildlife lotteries back in 2003, I can vouch for the simplicity of the method.

And I figure anything we outdoors enthusiasts can do to help the DIF&W spend less money shuffling our paperwork, the more cash will end up being spent on the things we’re so passionate about.

Turkey update issued

While bear season is upon us and Thanksgiving is a few months away, many folks around the state are still talking turkey.

The National Wild Turkey Federation issued a press update this week that itemized some progress in the state.

According to the NWTF, the Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife has relocated 227 wild turkeys within the state this year.

The state uses rocket nets and releases the birds into areas of suitable habitat that can sustain a larger population.

The turkey experts of the state and the NWTF should be commended for the effort they’ve made over the years, as the birds have established thriving populations in areas even biologists doubted was possible just a few years ago.

John Holyoke can be reached at jholyoke@bangordailynews.net or by calling 990-8214 or 1-800-310-8600.