As we head into spring, prime electrofishing season, many agencies are preparing their equipment for a busy year of work. One such agency, The Nebraska Game & Parks Commission, has invited two Smith-Root technicians out to their facility to perform a boat clinic on seven Smith-Root Electrofishing Boats. From February 13-17th our technicians, Kerry Smith and John Church, will inspect each boat’s complete electrical and electrofishing systems and replace and/or repair any faulty...

While most of us at Smith-Root used our annual year-end closure to spend time with our families during the holidays, Project Manager Don Ormiston chose to use his time off assisting his son’s Boy Scout troop in making Patrol Boxes. Based out of Salmon Creek, Troop 14 is comprised of 50 11-18 year old boys. Nine of these scouts volunteered to help build the patrol boxes at Smith-Root in exchange for a merit badge for metalworking. Once Don came up with the project idea and the boy...

In mid-September, 2011 Smith-Root installed a weather station at the Chicago 2A Fish Barrier located on the Chicago Sanitary Ship Canal (CSSC).  This busy shipping channel connects the Mississippi River system with the Great Lakes and is a likely path for invasive Asian Carp to follow to enter the Great Lakes.  To prevent this migration, which would devastate the native fisheries throughout the Great Lakes, Smith-Root was awarded a Federal Contract to supply and install its...