Faculty Advisor

Ed Weber

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 2025

Keywords

Internship

Abstract

Idaho’s Sawtooth Fish Hatchery was established in 1985 as a part of the Lower Snake River Compensation Plan (LSRPC); a federally funded effort to mitigate damage caused by the construction of the lower four Snake River dams. These dams disrupted migration paths, water temperatures, and spawning habitat of native salmon and steelhead. The Sawtooth hatchery, located along the Salmon River south of Stanley Idaho, plays a major role in the current efforts to maintain and promote healthy populations of chinook (king), sockeye, and steelhead. During the spring season, adult steelhead trout return upriver and are trapped by the hatchery’s weir. They are then sorted and spawned on site by hatchery employees. Fertilized eggs are held in trays, containing running well water, indoors until they reach the “eye” stage of development. At this point the eggs are transferred to separate hatcheries in Idaho to be reared until they are large enough for release. The juvenile steelhead are returned to Sawtooth hatchery and released downstream from the weir where they will continue over 900 miles down through the Salmon, Snake, and Columbia rivers toward the ocean.

Type

Text

Rights

Copying of this document in whole or in part is allowable only for scholarly purposes. It is understood, however, that any copying or publication of this document for commercial purposes, or for financial gain, shall not be allowed without the author’s written permission.

Language

English

Format

application/pdf

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