Center Director's Message Welcome to the Leetown Science Center, the oldest Federal Fishery research facility. Established in 1931, the Center applies expertise from a broad diversity of scientific disciplines to conduct integrated research programs addressing the high priority needs of natural resource managers and public policy makers. Examples of current, major research programs include: Impacts of dams and barriers, pollution, and human development on migrating fish. Methods for the detection, control and prevention of fish diseases. Determining the key environmental factors responsible for the distribution and abundance - or decline - of aquatic species. Genetic diversity and the maintenance of genetic diversity in wild populations. Restoration ecology, including effective rearing methods, for trust, threatened, endangered and other priority species. Development of water recycling technologies to reduce energy requirements, water consumption and potential pollution from hatcheries and other aquaculture facilities. The effects of environmental factors on the physiology, pathology, biochemistry, behavior and ecology of aquatic organisms. Identification of fish populations by genetic structure. Development of suitable habitat criteria to address problems caused by environmental conditions, alterations in land-use, over-fishing, pollutants, exotic species and other disturbances of aquatic communities. Headquartered in Leetown, West Virginia, Leetown Science Center research is conducted at six components: the Fish Health Branch, the Aquatic Ecology Branch, the Restoration Technologies Branch, the Southern Appalachian Field Branch,the Northern Appalachian Research Laboratory, and the Conte Anadromous Fish Laboratory. Please send a message to me, or any other member of the Leetown Science Center, if we can provide any additional information. Bill Palmisano Center Director