| Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery | |
|---|---|
 The historic Mount Whitney Fish hatchery, located in Independence, California | |
| Coordinates | 36°49′52″N118°14′41″W / 36.83111°N 118.24469°W |
| Area | 40 acres (16 ha) |
| Elevation | 4,000 feet (1,200 m) |
| Built | 1916 - 1917 |
| Architect | Charles Dean |
The Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery, located in Independence, California, United States, is an historic fish hatchery that has played an important role in the preservation of the golden trout, California's state fish.
The facility was built and operated by the California State Fish & Game Commission, now known as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Starting in 1915, the citizens of Independence began a local fundraising drive to purchase a site for a proposed state fish hatchery. $1,500.00 was raised, and a 40-acre (16 ha) site was purchased on Oak Creek, just north of the town. Fish and Game Commissioner M. J. Connell instructed the design team led by Charles Dean of the State Department of Engineering "to design a building that would match the mountains, would last forever, and would be a showplace for all time". [1] The architectural style they chose is Tudor Revival. Construction began in March, 1916, with a final budget of approximately $60,000.00. The walls of the building are constructed using 3,500 short tons (3,200 t) of native granite collected within a quarter mile (400 m) of the site. The walls are two to three feet (600 to 900 mm) thick. [2] The roof is red Spanish tile made in Lincoln, California.
When construction was completed in 1917, it was the largest and best equipped hatchery in California and could produce 2,000,000 fish fry per year. Initially, fish eggs were collected from the Rae Lakes and were transported to the hatchery by mule train. Since 1918, golden trout eggs have been collected from the Cottonwood Lakes. This program is the sole source of California golden trout eggs, currently operated by the nearby Black Rock Fish Hatchery since the closure of Mt Whitney Hatchery in 2008.
In July 1931, the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery and the Colorado Fish Commission traded 30,000 Colorado River cutthroat trout eggs for 25,000 golden trout eggs. The resulting Colorado cutthroat fry were planted in remote High Sierra lakes at very high elevations. Over the following 50 years, the population in Colorado became endangered due to habitat destruction and interbreeding with other species of trout. The cutthroats now living in California remained pure. In 1987, California and Colorado cooperated to transplant 50 genetically pure cutthroats back to a remote lake in Rocky Mountain National Park, where they thrived. [3]
In 1996, the California Department of Fish and Game proposed closing the hatchery due to budget cuts. Local and statewide opposition to the closure developed, and a plan was approved to save the facility in order to "provide the public with an interpretation of the historical significance of the hatchery, knowledge of the hatchery's function and an understanding of our natural resources". Legislation was passed designating the "Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery" as a private group authorized to lease part of the hatchery in order to maintain and preserve it, in coordination with the State Office of Historic Preservation. [4]
On July 5, 2007, a 55,000-acre (22,000 ha) wildfire burned upstream to the west of the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery. A year later on July 12, 2008, a heavy thunderstorm caused a massive mudslide in the fire-scarred Oak Creek watershed that swept downstream, severely damaging the ponds and water supplies of the hatchery, as well as two employee housing units. The main building escaped major damage. [5] The Friends of the Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery organized restoration work that allowed the interpretive center and display pond to re-open on May 30, 2009. [6]
The first group of fish to come out of the hatchery in three years were planted in Diaz Lake, and a Kids Fishing Day was held in May, 2010. An expanded interpretive center was planned. [7]
On November 29, 2023, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) announced that more than 40 acres (16 ha) of the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery land will be transferred to Fort Independence Indian Community. [8] This is the first ever land transfer by CDFW to a California tribe. The no-cost transfer, to be completed early 2024, was approved the prior week by the Wildlife Conservation Board following years of discussion. [9]
The land includes the fish hatchery structures and native habitat. CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham noted that the land transfer "honors Governor Newsom’s Executive Order encouraging the transfer of excess lands to California Native American tribes and it is a Nature Based Solution that contributes to the goals of 30x30.”
Indigenous Paiute members settled in the area since time immemorial, and Tribal Chairman Carl Dahlberg responded to the land transfer announcement saying, "This property is inextricably intwined into who we are as Paiute people and we hope to bring this knowledge and history back to the community through the preservation of the Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery.” [10] [ failed verification ]
Trout is a generic common name for numerous species of carnivorous freshwater ray-finned fishes belonging to the genera Oncorhynchus, Salmo and Salvelinus, all of which are members of the subfamily Salmoninae in the family Salmonidae. The word trout is also used for some similar-shaped but non-salmonid fish, such as the spotted seatrout/speckled trout.
Pyramid Lake is the geographic sink of the basin of the Truckee River, 40 mi (64 km) northeast of Reno, Nevada, United States.
The National Fish Hatchery System (NFHS) was established by the U.S. Congress in 1871 through the creation of a U.S. Commissioner for Fish and Fisheries. This system of fish hatcheries is now administered by the Fisheries Program of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), an agency within the United States Department of the Interior.
Walker Lake is a natural lake in the Great Basin in western Nevada in the United States. It is 11 mi (17 km) long and 5 mi (8 km) wide, in northwestern Mineral County along the east side of the Wassuk Range, about 75 mi (120 km) southeast of Reno. The lake is fed from the north by the Walker River and has no natural outlet except absorption and evaporation. The community of Walker Lake is found along the southwest shore.
The Kern River, previously Río de San Felipe, later La Porciúncula, is an Endangered, Wild and Scenic river in the U.S. state of California, approximately 165 miles (270 km) long. It drains an area of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains northeast of Bakersfield. Fed by snowmelt near Mount Whitney, the river passes through scenic canyons in the mountains and is a popular destination for whitewater rafting and kayaking. It is the southernmost major river system in the Sierra Nevada, and is the only major river in the Sierra that drains in a southerly direction.
The rainbow trout is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead is an anadromous (sea-run) form of the coastal rainbow trout(O. m. irideus) or Columbia River redband trout (O. m. gairdneri) that usually returns to freshwater to spawn after living two to three years in the ocean. Freshwater forms that have been introduced into the Great Lakes and migrate into tributaries to spawn are also called steelhead.
The cutthroat trout(Oncorhynchus clarkii) is a fish species of the family Salmonidae native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean, Rocky Mountains, and Great Basin in North America. As a member of the genus Oncorhynchus, it is one of the Pacific trout, a group that includes the widely distributed rainbow trout. Cutthroat trout are popular gamefish, especially among anglers who enjoy fly fishing. The common name "cutthroat" refers to the distinctive red coloration on the underside of the lower jaw. The specific name clarkii was given to honor explorer William Clark, coleader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
Lahontan cutthroat trout is the largest subspecies of cutthroat trout and the state fish of Nevada. It is one of three subspecies of cutthroat trout that are listed as federally threatened.
The Mount Massive Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Sawatch Range, located in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is operated jointly by the United States Forest Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the San Isabel National Forest and the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. It is 30,540 acres (123.6 km2) in size, with 27,980 acres (113.2 km2) in San Isabel National Forest and 2,560 acres (10.4 km2) in Leadville National Fish Hatchery, and it was designated by the US Congress in 1980. The name comes from Mount Massive, the second highest peak in Colorado, located inside the wilderness. Elevations in the wilderness range from 9,700 feet (3,000 m) to 14,421 feet (4,396 m). It is the only federally designated wilderness area within the National Fish Hatchery System.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), formerly known as the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG), is an American state agency under the California Natural Resources Agency. The Department of Fish and Wildlife manages and protects the state's wildlife, wildflowers, trees, mushrooms, algae and native habitats (ecosystems). The department is responsible for regulatory enforcement and management of related recreational, commercial, scientific, and educational uses. The department also prevents illegal poaching.
Paiute cutthroat trout is one of fourteen subspecies of cutthroat trout. Paiute Cutthroat are native only to Silver King Creek, a headwater tributary of the Carson River in the Sierra Nevada, in California. This subspecies is named after the indigenous Northern Paiute peoples.
Rush Creek is a 27.2-mile-long (43.8 km) creek in California on the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada, running east and then northeast to Mono Lake. Rush Creek is the largest stream in the Mono Basin, carrying 41% of the total runoff. It was extensively diverted by the Los Angeles Aqueduct system in the twentieth century until California Trout, Inc., the National Audubon Society, and the Mono Lake Committee sued Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) for continuous low flows in Rush Creek to maintain trout populations in good condition, which was ordered by the court in 1985.
The Golden Trout Wilderness is a federally designated wilderness area in the Sierra Nevada, in Tulare County and Inyo County, California. It is located 40 miles (64 km) east of Porterville within Inyo National Forest and Sequoia National Forest.
The Lake Fish Hatchery Historic District comprises nine buildings built between 1930 and 1932 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the National Park Service Rustic style. The buildings exhibit a consistency of style and construction, with exposed gable trusses and oversized paired logs at the corners, all with brown paint. The district is located on the shore of Yellowstone lake near the Lake Hotel The hatchery was established to provide Yellowstone cutthroat trout eggs for state and federal hatcheries outside Yellowstone.
The Carson–Iceberg Wilderness is a federal wilderness area located 80 miles (130 km) northeast of Stockton, California. It encompasses 160,000 acres (650 km2) and was designated by the California Wilderness Act of 1984. It protects an area of High Sierra landscape with elevations from 4,800 feet (1,500 m) to 11,462 feet (3,494 m) along the Sierra Mountains from Ebbetts Pass to Sonora Pass in the south. The US Forest Service manages the wilderness which is in both the Stanislaus National Forest and the Humboldt–Toiyabe National Forest.
The cutbow is an interspecific fertile hybrid between rainbow trout and cutthroat trout. While natural separation of spawning habitat limited hybridization in most native populations of rainbow and cutthroat trout, introduction of non-native hatchery-raised rainbow trout into native cutthroat trout range increased hybridization across the landscape. Due to these introductions, many populations of cutthroat trout are at risk of genetic pollution. As a result, significant management intervention at state and federal levels has occurred to preserve native populations of cutthroat trout.
The Bozeman National Fish Hatchery, now known as Bozeman Fish Technology Center, is located about 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Bozeman, Montana, at the entrance to Bridger Canyon. There is also a National Fish Health Center on the southwest side of Bozeman, near Montana State University, about 7 miles (11 km) away from the Fish Technology Center. Fish Technology Centers work with a wide variety of public and private partners to improve and conserve aquatic resources. Both the Fish Technology Center and the Fish Health Center are part of the National Fish Hatchery System, operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. There are seven Fish Technology Centers and nine Fish Health Centers in the United States. The Bozeman hatchery is the fourth oldest National Fish Hatchery. The hatchery was named to the National Register of Historic Places on January 6, 1983.
The Bellvue-Watson Fish Hatchery is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold water fish production facility located near Cache la Poudre River and Watson Lake State Wildlife Area in Larimer County, Colorado. Hatchery staff works to support the raising of approximately 1.5 million sub-catchable trout annually. The Watson Lake Rearing Unit, a division within the hatchery, is responsible for rearing approximately 300,000 catchable trout each year. The hatchery stocks fishing sports in Wellington, Fort Collins, Loveland, Longmont and Jumbo Reservoir near Julesburg and Hale ponds.
The Mt. Shavano Hatchery is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold-water fish hatchery situated near Arkansas River headwaters at the base of Big Baldy Mountain in Chaffee County. This facility is renowned as one of the largest trout units in the state.
The Pitkin Hatchery is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold water fish production facility located in Gunnison National Forest right off of Quartz Creek Valley in Gunnison County.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
