HARTSVILLE - Reclining in a wooden swivel chair, Ken Bergstrom strokes his graying beard.

"The fish will be here until they go to the Great Lake in the Sky, I suppose," says Bergstrom, who is heading up the recently revamped Berkshire National Fish Hatchery.

As the executive director of the Westeren Massachusetts Center for Sustainable Aquiculture at Hampshire College in Amherst, Bergstrom has managed a deal with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to revitalize the hatchery and provide an educational forum for students and residents alike.

But the hatchery, which celebrated its official reopening last weekend after five years of dormancy, will provide more than hands-on experience and an occsional seminar.

Gould Farm has entered into a partnership with the hatchery to aid in maintaining the facility in exchange for the use of a house on the property. Staff from Gould Farm, the country's oldest community-based psychiatric rehabilitation organization which abuts the fishery, will live in the homestead, while a handful of clients - known as guests - work with Bergstrom and his students.

"For years we've expressed interest in what happens to the property," said Gould Farm Executive Director Brian Snyder. "It's a great relationship because we have the proximity and the human power to get some of the necessary work done, and they have the expertise. The hatchery will offer a different venue for our guests.

Snyder said Gould Farm has already worked with the hatchery to prepare for the opening, and that he hopes staffers will be on site by winter.

"We've had a housing shortage on the farm, so this is a good way to fill that need. Plus we cam nom offer our guests another opportunity," said Gould Farm Residential Manager Melissa Hamilton, adding that a mile-long trail between the farm and the hatchery will link the institutions.

In September, Hamphsire College and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service signed a five-year agreement allowing the college to operate the 136-acre hatchery as an aquiculture training center.

The hatchery, nestled on the side of the mountain on Hatchery Road, includes a hatch house, office building, feed storage building, primary residence, secondary residence, garage and 12 dome-shaped pools that will contain the fish and ponds to collect water.

"The existing water supply, aquiculture facilities, residence and surrounding woodlands will serve as an excellent satellite educational facility in fisheries and related sciences."

"The site is also a prime location for ecological and forestry studies," said Bergstrom.

Moreover, Bergstrom expressed interest in assisting in the recently announced consent decree agreement between the General Electric Company and state and federal agaencies for the cleanup of the PCB-laden Housatonic River.

The hatchery could act as a holding pen for fish and other animals as the cleanup of the river progresses.

"We could hold them here as the flume settles, which would give them a new lease on life," he said. "The students would be involved in ecological restoration, which would be great for them and good publicvity for us."

The hatchery, closed in 1994 due to budget constaints, will be home once again to brook, brown, and rainbow trout and Atlantic salmon.

Bergstrom expects students from not only Hampshire College but also students from the four other colleges in the Five College system - the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, Smith College, and Mount Holyoke College - to participate. He hopes to include Berkshire County colleges as well as younger students to use the hatchery as a resource.

The government was deeded the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery in 1914 with the understanding that it would be used for research purposes.

Eighty years later, the hatchery closed because of lack of funding.

Even though the hatchery has attained funding, Bergstrom in working on a tight budget, so he is consequently in the process of organizing a non-profit Friends of the Berkshire Hatchery.

"We have the funding, but it is year by year support from the government so you never know what to expect," Bergstrom said.