Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery is a National Fish Hatchery located just below Wolf Creek Dam in Russell County, Kentucky. The hatchery is a federal hatchery and is a part of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. [1]
Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery (NFH) was constructed in 1975, making it one of the most recently constructed hatcheries in the federal system. With 70 hatcheries nationwide, Wolf Creek NFH is one of 14 hatcheries in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Region. The station currently produces approximately 1,000,000 rainbow, brown and brook trout annually. In cooperation with the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, fish are stocked into over 100 different public fishing waters in the state. No private waters are stocked. [2] Wolf Creek NFH is also working toward the recovery of several threatened or endangered species, including the Relict darter (endangered), Spotfin chub (threatened), and the Blackside dace (threatened). Visitation to the hatchery is over 100,000 annually.
The hatchery's water supply comes from Lake Cumberland at a depth ranging from 25 to 100 feet below the water surface. The water temperatures will range from 40 degrees Fahrenheit to 65 degrees Fahrenheit depending on the time of year. The water gravity flows through the hatchery at rates up to 15,000 gallons per minute. [3]
The Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery Visitor/Environmental Education Center opened to the public in September 2006.. The new facility was the first center of its kind at a National Fish Hatchery. Through state-of-the-art exhibits, classroom, indoor theater and gift shop, the center serves as a fun and engaging learning resource for all visitors, especially school children from the region.
The center also offers a myriad of outreach programs and workshops (including the annual Catch a Rainbow Kids Fishing Derby, held on the first Saturday in June each year) and also launched a newly created environmental education curriculum, which is designed for hatcheries and tailored to meet the needs of teachers in Kentucky. The facility is also supported by the Friends of Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery, Inc. and a strong volunteer staff. [4]
Friends of Wolfcreek fully fund, through support of charitable giving the events held at Wolf Creek. The Friends Group is responsible for raising the funds, ensuring that all events are not only fun, but educational.
Events include the Catch a Rainbow Fishing Derby, held the first Saturday in June, to coincide with Kentucky's free fishing weekend. The Catch a Smile event held in September for local school aged special needs, The Senior Fishing Derby, for senior citizens, in local nursing homes, and the Wounded Warrior Fishing derby, allowing veterans from all eras a chance to fish the lake, and the trout stream. These last three events are held in September.
Also the Hatchery hosts an Earth day event, an all day play event, several craft classes, and a Christmas event.
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.
The rainbow trout is a species of trout native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in Asia and North America. 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.
Steelhead, or occasionally steelhead trout, is the common name of the anadromous form of the coastal rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus m. irideus) or redband trout. Steelhead are native to cold-water tributaries of the Pacific basin in Northeast Asia and North America. Like other sea-run (anadromous) trout and salmon, steelhead spawn in freshwater, smolts migrate to the ocean to forage for several years and adults return to their natal streams to spawn. Steelhead are iteroparous, although survival is approximately 10–20%.
The Gila trout is a species of salmonid, related to the rainbow, native to the Southwest United States. Prior to 2006 the Gila trout was federally listed as endangered. In July 2006, after much work by the Game and Fish departments in New Mexico and Arizona, the US Forest Service and the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Gila trout was down-listed to threatened, with a special provision called a "4d rule" that will allow limited sport fishing – for the first time in nearly half a century. This possibility is distinct: there may be no one alive today that has legally angled a pure Gila trout from its native waters. By the time the Gila trout was closed to fishing in the 1950s, its numbers and range were so depleted and so reduced this copper-colored trout simply wasn't very accessible to anglers. As of 2011 there is fishing in both states for this fish.
Lake Oroville is a reservoir formed by the Oroville Dam impounding the Feather River, located in Butte County, northern California. The lake is situated 5 miles (8 km) northeast of the city of Oroville, within the Lake Oroville State Recreation Area, in the western foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Known as the second-largest reservoir in California, Lake Oroville is treated as a keystone facility within the California State Water Project by storing water, providing flood control, recreation, freshwater releases assist in controlling the salinity intrusion into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and protecting fish and wildlife.
Oncorhynchus is a genus of fish in the family Salmonidae; it contains the Pacific salmon and Pacific trout. The name of the genus is derived from the Greek ὄγκος + ῥύγχος, in reference to the hooked snout that the males develop during mating season.
Merrill Creek Reservoir, located in Harmony Township, New Jersey in central Warren County, New Jersey, is a 650-acre (260 ha) artificial lake designed to hold 15 billion gallons of water that is surrounded by 290 acres (120 ha) of protected woodland and fields. These lands are themselves part of 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of open spaces.
The Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, is responsible for the conservation of wildlife resources and for boating projects in the state. A commissioner appointed by the Fish and Wildlife Commission heads the department. The commission—which oversees the department's commissioner and promulgates regulations governing fishing, hunting, and boating—is a nine-member bipartisan board appointed by the governor from a list of candidates nominated by active hunters and anglers in each of nine geographic districts in the state.
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 Metolius River is a tributary of the Deschutes River in Central Oregon, United States, near the city of Sisters. The river flows north from springs near Black Butte, then turns sharply east, descending through a series of gorges before ending in the western end of the lake. The unincorporated community of Camp Sherman lies astride the southern end of the river. The name of the river comes from the Warm Springs or Sahaptin word mitula, meaning white salmon and referring to a light colored Chinook salmon and not a whitefish.
Fish stocking is the practice of raising fish in a hatchery and releasing them into a river, lake or ocean to supplement existing populations or to create a population where previously none exists. Stocking may be done for the benefit of commercial, recreational or tribal heritage fishing, but may also be done to restore or increase the population of threatened or endangered fish in a body of water closed to fishing.
The West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (WVDNR) is an agency of the government of the U.S. state of West Virginia. While formerly known as the cabinet-level Department of Natural Resources, it is now part of the West Virginia Department of Commerce. The WVDNR is responsible for wildlife management, hunting and fishing regulations, and boater safety and also oversees state parks and resorts. It also operates the West Virginia State Wildlife Center, a zoo in French Creek that exhibits West Virginian wildlife.
This page is a list of fishing topics.
The Neosho National Fish Hatchery is the oldest federal fish hatchery in operation today. It is one of 69 fish hatcheries operated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. It was established in 1888.
White Sulphur Springs National Fish Hatchery is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service facility located along the historic Midland Trail in the Allegheny Highlands of southeast West Virginia. It was established in 1900 to produce fish for the American Public. This fish hatchery became part of the National Broadstock Program in 1976. Since then, hatchery personnel has been working on shipping millions of disease-free rainbow trout eggs to hatcheries across the country.
The D.C. Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery and Archives, also known as the Spearfish Fisheries Center or Spearfish Fisheries Complex and formerly known as the Spearfish National Fish Hatchery, is one of 70 fish hatcheries that were opened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the National Fish Hatchery System. The hatchery was established near Spearfish, South Dakota in 1896, with the purpose of introducing and establishing populations of trout in the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming. It is one of the oldest fish hatcheries in the United States and is the second-oldest in the American West. The hatchery spawns and releases about 20,000 to 30,000 rainbow trout each year. The hatchery doubles as a fisheries archive with the purpose of preserving records and early historical artifacts. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Big Spring Creek is a tributary of the Judith River in Fergus County, Montana near Lewistown, Montana. The creek originates from a first magnitude artesian spring approximately 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Lewistown and flows north, northwest for 30 miles (48 km) to its confluence with the Judith River. The spring is the one of the largest in the world flowing at approximately 50,000 to 64,000 US gallons per minute out of the Madison-Limestone formation in the foothills of the Big Snowy Mountains. The creek flows through and under the town of Lewistown. For three blocks spanning Main Street, the creek runs underneath the town in a man-made channel that was created as the town was built over the creek. The spring provides Lewistown's water supply, which requires no treatment for use by consumers.
Saratoga National Fish Hatchery is part of the National Fish Hatchery System operated by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. It is located northeast of Saratoga, Wyoming and, along with the Jackson National Fish Hatchery, is one of two National fish hatcheries operating in Wyoming. Saratoga NHF is primarily a broodstock hatchery; it maintains several healthy adults to produce sperm and eggs and distributes fertilized eggs to production hatcheries throughout the country to be hatched and grown to stockable sizes. It is also one of several organizations to establish a program for breeding Wyoming toads.
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 Rifle Falls Fish Hatchery is a Colorado Parks and Wildlife cold water fish production facility located off East Rifle Creek near Rifle Falls State Park in Garfield County.