After a four-year bureaucratic stoppage, rainbow trout are again being raised at the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery, and the first of those trout were stocked on the Colorado River Jan. 12. After two major trout die-offs at the hatch
After a four-year bureaucratic stoppage, rainbow trout are again being raised at the Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery, and the first of those trout were stocked on the Colorado River Jan. 12. After two major trout die-offs at the hatchery in 2013, plants ended and trout production ceased when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it couldn’t afford repairs to the hatchery to continue to raise and plant trout.
The die-offs in 2013 occurred because floating aquatic vegetation clogged the water intake from the Colorado River and hatchery staff didn’t notice the problem. The repairs, completed this past August, consisted of new water conveyance system.