The Haliburton Highlands Outdoor Association is pleased to announce that David Poirier has volunteered to manage the association’s fish hatchery. Poirier takes over for Randy Charter, who managed the hatchery operations for the last seven years.

“I’ve been vacationing in the Haliburton area for 30 years and I’ve always admired the HHOA’s work,” said Poirier. “I’m thrilled to continue Randy’s outstanding work and look forward to helping the HHOA enhance its efforts to improve Haliburton area fisheries.”

David recently retired from the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, where he spent 32 years as a scientist in aquatic toxicology. While there he ran a fish culture laboratory that reared 25,000 rainbow trout every year. David has a bachelor of science in marine biology, specializing in fish culturing, and a masters in science in Environmental Biology from the University of Guelph.

“David brings an extremely high level of expertise to the hatchery, said Dan Smith, HHOA President. “We are very excited to have David with us as we explore new ways to improve and expand our operations.”

David and his wife Linda recently purchased a property near Salerno Lake where they are building their retirement home. The couple have three boys ranging in age from 23 to 31. Look for David paddling local lakes in his “goldenrod”-coloured Scott canoe pursuing his favourite hobby: fishing, of course!

Since 1998, the HHOA has raised and stocked over 800,000 fish in local lakes. You can join HHOA at HHOA.on.ca. And remember to play the HHOA 50/50 monthly raffle at bigcatch5050.ca. Fifty percent of all monthly proceeds go to one lucky winner. The other fifty percent supports the fish hatchery.

– Submitted by the Haliburton Highlands Outdoor Association