Preparations underway for Crystal Springs Hatchery project
Crystal Springs fish hatchery in Springfield.
By JOSEPH WADSWORTH
Sho-Ban News
CRYSTAL SPRINGS — Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Crystal Springs Hatchery project in partnership with Bonneville Power Administration, along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has started preparations on the Crystal Springs Hatchery project.
Crystal Springs Hatchery metal sign.
Aaron Colter, Shoshone-Bannock Tribes Fish & Wildlife Department Tribal Hatchery Production Manager, is working on Crystal Springs Hatchery project and Water Wheel Hatchery project. He said the renovations for the Crystal Springs Hatchery project began back in July of 2024 where they cleared the area of sage brush and flattened the grounds to make way for two acclimation pounds and restoring the old fish hatchery building.
Aaron Colter with an open fish
feed box.
Colter said they have replaced the old plumbing and added a new roof as well as rebuilt/restored the raceways and added new raceways — with a total of eight raceways — where the fry (babies) and smolts are reared).
The natural spring water is a constant 50° temp, which is perfect for young fish to grow. “There is also a constant 1,000 to 1,020 gallons per minute coming from under the ground,” said Colter.
Alevin in incubation.
In October of 2024 Shoshone-Bannock Fish and Wildlife Department received 50,000 Chinook salmon eggs from the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery, Stanley. It was a surplus from the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery in which Colter explained the original asking amount was 300,000 eggs. “So, we did take what the hatchery had.”
Colter explained they will rear them (chinook salmon) here on the accelerated strategy from six months and then will acclimate for two weeks in an acclamation pond out at one of the ponds on site, then in May, they will be released along the Yankee Fork River that runs into the Salmon River.
Crystal Springs Hatchery raceways.
After this group of Chinook are reared there is a plan to bring in some Yellowstone Cutthroat to keep the hatchery hatch rate going and to keep testing.
Colter said daily he is cleaning raceways, picking any dead fish in the raceways, cleaning the feeders and weighing out the fish feed.
He hands feeds the fish then also loads the feeders to feed over a 12-hour period. There are also weekly duties which consists of sampling, counting fish to enter and calculate each week so you don’t underfeed the fish.
