Edges are among the finest places in nature, and they have an elemental draw. Riparian ribbons edge up to the water, snaking along meandering streams. A smooth glassy glide in a cold creek pours around boulders and in the lee below, trout tarry there. What an economical way for a fish to make a living - letting the groceries come drifting by. Deft casting might pass your offering where it needs to go along the edge. The edges where different currents meet - visible at the right perspective - point up where the trout lie. And what is perspective but an angle of vision.

National Fishing and Boating Week (June 3-11) always offers me a renewed perspective on the value of fishing and conservation in these United States. I at once reflect on past experiences while also looking ahead to the future. I am convinced that were it not for my interest in fishing as a youngster, I very well could have been a teenage mom. My mom got me outdoors and interested in nature and those experiences padded me from peer pressure that could have sent me down the wrong path.

Like anglers are inherently eternal optimists, I look positively toward the future. But what's more, I have an angle of vision offered by research into the economic value of fishing conducted by an economist in my agency. Dr. James Caudill's analysis of the economic effects of rainbow trout in the National Fish Hatchery System offers a perspective that business people, taxpayers, and anglers will certainly appreciate.

Dr. Caudill discovered that for every one dollar we spend in producing rainbow trout in 11 of 70 National Fish Hatcheries, that dollar grows in the economy to $36.88 in net economic value. In 2004, the National Fish Hatchery System spent $5.4 million on rainbow trout. Those dollars coursed through the economy creating 3,502 jobs that generated $80 million in wages for people's pocketbooks. Of those wages, $10.6 million was returned to the public treasury in federal income tax. That $5.4 million created 3.9 million angler-days fishing for rainbow trout around the U.S.; the money spent on rainbow trout fishing returned an astounding $325.1 million in total economic output.

That's only rainbow trout. Dr. Caudill similarly discovered that warm-water fish produced in the National Fish Hatchery System for recreational fishing in the West created similar economic effects. Federal hatcheries in Montana, Wyoming, the Dakotas, and Utah and Colorado stocked nine species of game fish, like walleye, northern pike, and black bass, in 13 western states in 2004. Those stockings created 4.7 million angler-days on the water that in turn generated over $326 million in economic output.

Fishing has its intrinsic values; writers ruminate and poets ponder those values, yet every angler knows them. Economic studies make it clear that fishing is valuable in a very real and measurable way. From my perspective, I am glad to stand in league with anglers that drive this economic engine; healthy habitats and healthy fish lead to healthy people and healthy economies.

To learn more, visit www.fws.gov/species/rainbowtrout or email rainbowtrout@fws.gov.