Montana blocks out-of-state trout egg shipments

Montana officials are holding up shipments of tens of thousands of trout eggs from a federal fish hatchery to other states, as Gov. Brian Schweitzer seeks to pressure the Interior Department into changing the way it manages another species - bison. The clash between the governor and Interior comes as the Ennis National Fish Hatchery near Bozeman is entering one of its busy seasons, with 5.7 million eggs slated for shipment in the next eight weeks. Officials said most of those eggs were intended to go out of state. So far, two trout egg shipments scheduled this week from Ennis to state hatcheries in Utah and New Hampshire have been delayed, state and federal officials said. Those totaled more than 140,000 eggs. Schweitzer signed an order last week prohibiting any fish or wildlife shipments by the Interior Department without state approval. That came after Interior officials in recent months repeatedly rebuffed the Democrat's proposal to allow bison hunting in parts of Yellowstone National Park to help control an animal disease, brucellosis. The federal agency also has resisted Schweitzer's idea to relocate some disease-free bison to the National Bison Range...more

Great to see a Governor standing up for the sovereignty of his state and giving a little lesson on federalism to Interior. More on this later.