Leadville National Fish Hatchery

If you did not have a chance to stop in and see the 150th anniversary quilt, you only have one more day! We will be packing it up tomorrow afternoon to send on to the Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership Program workshop in Bozeman, Mt.

https://www.fws.gov/program/aquatic-animal-health/aquatic-animal-drug-approval-partnership

Thank you Connie Young-Dubovsky for volunteering to design and making the wonderful quilt square for Leadville NFH!

Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership Program | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The Aquatic Animal Drug Approval Partnership is a fish medicine research and development program. This small team of research professionals contribute thousands of hours in the lab and field to make sure that fisheries managers across the country have access to a well-stocked fish medicine ch...

We had a great 2 days with almost 150 kids! It is tiring, but always fun to share some hatchery knowledge with impressionable kids. Who knows, maybe one will return as a hatchery biologist in the future!

Every now and then you really have to bite the bullet and bear down on work, it can be extremely rough to get up knowing you have to hike 5 miles in the mountains (flowers almost in full bloom) carrying a bag of water containing threatened greenback cutthroat trout to release in a pristine mountain lake. Someone has to do it so we volunteered! Evan and I had the opportunity with over 50 other volunteers to stock two small lakes that had been preparing for their new residents for over ten years. This was one of the first steps to create a wild breeding population in a new drainage. There is currently only one wild breeding population with another that has a single year of reproduction, fingers crossed these lakes prove suitable and we see some offspring in the next few years! There is little suitable habitat to stock these delicate and rare fish but with the efforts of U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Trout Unlimited, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, National Park Service, and many other valuable volunteers, this project and a few others are just some of the small steps that have been carried out in efforts to recover the greenback cutthroat!

If anyone went from the hatchery up to the Colorado Trail today they may have ran into a strange sight, a group of Forest Service employees and a llama with some boards strapped to it! The FS is rebuilding a bridge in the Wilderness and the boards proved difficult for people to pack so the aid of a pack llama was enlisted.

The crew is working on the bridge today and should be completed by the 4th if anyone is traveling that way!

For the 150-year anniversary of the US Fish and Wildlife Service's, Commission of Fish and Fisheries, now known as Fish and Aquatic Conservation, a quilt was commissioned to celebrate the many hatcheries and stations of the program. Each facility had the opportunity to contribute a square to the project, the result is beautiful and represents the variety of projects represented. The quilt is making a tour of the different facilities and Leadville is its most recent stop! If you have the time, stop in and take a gander, it will only be here until the end of July.

It is intern highlight Sunday! Up next is Ralph Eberhard who came to us through BlueElements.org and the AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards program.
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My name is Ralph Eberhard and after a career change I am currently a third year student at Colorado State University majoring in Fish and Wildlife Conservation Biology. I am a Colorado native and enjoy studying and working with our native species. I’m excited to be part of the Leadville National Fish Hatchery team and getting to work hands on with our state fish.
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We look forward to having Ralph help us out this summer!

It smells like a campfire around here! Wait, that is just the beginning of wildfire season :(

The Interlaken fire that started on Tuesday was caused by a fire inside a rock ring that was improperly extinguished 1-3 days *before* the fire sprung up. This goes to show that a fire is not out until it is out -and- cold! Please be aware of your fire if you are camping and make sure it is out!

On the good side, the fire rating is still at moderate which is an objective measurement of how available fuels are to burn and some other metrics. With the rain and cool weather today, it is highly likely they will get the fire under control very soon.

Thank you fire fighters!

More stocking this week! We put another 1,000 fish out in preparation for Father’s Day. Emerald lake is now ready for the weekend!

Our annual Pathways to Fishing was held Tuesday with 5th graders from Leadville and Lake County. The weather cooperated for the most part and the day was a success. The students visited stations teaching and showing topics like casting fishing rods (bait casters and fly rods), water safety, tying of fishing knots, birds, furs and bones, aquatic etymology, and fish anatomy/dissection. The stations were followed by lunch supplied by our Friends group, some play time at the Evergreen Lakes picnic area and pavilion, and finally feeding the fish in our raceways. Each kid went home with a fishing rod and small tackle box to take out on their own.

I want to send out a special thanks to Friends of the Leadville National Fish Hatchery, Leadville-Lake County Sports Hall of Fame, Ann and Henry Kleiman of Collegiate Peaks Trout Unlimited, PB Swims, U.S. Forest Service, Max, JoAnn, Hillary, Avalynn, Ralph, Evan, Bob and Robin Deister, Jaden, and my staff! It is a big lift and there is no way we could do it without a lot of help.

It is the time of year that bears are coming out of hibernation and are looking for some food to quiet the rumbling tummy! Over the past few weeks, bears are showing up all over Facebook and the news for being around trails, houses, and towns.

The fish hatchery is no different!

The hatchery is one of the nearest habitations to the Mt. Massive Wilderness and this Sunday night, bear(s) broke into the trash up at our pavilion and made a mess. No one saw the animal(s) but they left their sign. Black bears are not typically dangerous to humans and are most likely to run away when they see you, but a sow with cubs is another story and will potentially attack if she feels her cubs are in danger. If you see a bear in close proximity, back away slowly while making yourself look big, make noise, and do not run! If you are at the hatchery and lucky enough to spot a bear, please notify staff so that we can make other visitors aware of the animals in the area.

The weather is getting warmer which means it is time to get things done at the hatchery so it is the time of year to bring on our volunteers and interns. This year we have a well-rounded crew of seasonal help that will take on a big portion of the work around the hatchery.

Over the next few weeks I will highlight one of the interns or volunteers helping out at the hatchery for the summer and this week I would like to introduce Evan Hill.

Evan Hill (he/him) is a current Master's student in Ecosystem Science and Management at the University of Michigan's School for Environment and Sustainability. With a focus in Great Lakes Fish Ecology, Evan’s career journey is characterized by a dual passion: uncovering growth patterns and ecological dynamics of non-game and underrepresented fish species, while also striving to conserve aquatic ecosystems for future generations. Evan's Master’s thesis looks to validate museum specimens as accurate proxies for reconstructing historical freshwater fish growth. During his undergraduate studies, Evan pursued a double major in Biology and Environmental Science, with a minor in Geology at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. There, he investigated the ecology of Late Ordovician Cephalopods and their role in food web structure and analyzed stability and resistance mechanisms to predict modern Arctic marine invasions. As a current intern for the Institute for Fisheries Research with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Evan has contributed to various fishery monitoring and assessment projects. He has been involved in the USGS Great Lakes Science Center Coregonine Science Program and the St. Clair-Detroit River Sturgeon for Tomorrow non-profit. His responsibilities have included conducting state-wide inland lake Status and Trend Monitoring Surveys, working as a Wolf Lake State Fish Hatchery Technician, and volunteering for the F&W Freshwater Mussel Relocation Program. Evan will be joining the Leadville National Fish Hatchery as their Directorates Fellowship Program Fellow, focusing on creating a Broodstock Genetic Management Plan for the threatened Greenback Cutthroat Trout. In his free time, Evan enjoys swimming, playing tennis, tending to houseplants, visiting museums and botanical gardens, and cooking for friends and family.

If you see Evan around the facility, tell him hi!

The spring has finally sprung and we are getting our fish stocking going! So far we have made trips to Twin Lakes, Crystal Lake, and Mount Elbert Forebay and there will be more to come. Stay tuned!

While most people are wearing shorts, planning for summer, and looking forward to the heat, at the hatchery we are still shoveling snow!

As a hatchery we are (almost) always happy to see more water and the Arkansas river basin is currently showing almost 100% of normal. With water woes across the West the winter of 2023-2024 has proven a boon for many areas but we are still way behind on the needs for many areas. We will keep our fingers crossed for a wet year!

Despite how conditions are looking now, we are also planning for summer. The first fish will be stocked in the next few weeks and our broodstock is almost ready to spawn!

Stay tuned!

Today is Earth Day!

Every day should be Earth Day, but April 22 has been celebrated around the world since 1970.

Earth Day | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Image DetailsA collage image of animals, including a bald eagle, digger bee, eastern gray treefrog, trout in sac fry stage and wood bison, and the Service's logo in the bottom left corner. Earth Day 2024. Credit: Kayt Jonsson/USFWSelebrate Earth Day on April 22 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Servi...

Did you get to see the solar eclipse today? 🌙
The Leadville/Lake County area had a partial eclipse that lasted for a couple hours. The weather definitely got colder because of it!

Project Leader Josh Homer and Bozeman Fish Health Lab Veterinarian Jake Veilleux (who happened to be visiting for our annual fish health inspection) broke out their eclipse glasses to see this amazing celestial event!

📸: Alyssa Capriotti/USFWS

Happy World Water Day! We love our water!

World Water Day, held on 22 March every year since 1993, is an annual United Nations Observance focusing on the importance of freshwater. https://www.unwater.org/our-work/world-water-day

March 20th is World Frog Day! 🐸

You may see this picture and think, “but that’s a toad!”

Did you know…all toads are frogs but not all frogs are toads?
Kind of like the phrase all cacti are succulents but not all succulents are cacti. 🌵 🤔

So today is a day to appreciate the wonderful and diverse amphibians of our nation! At Leadville NFH, we are especially fond of the endangered yet very charismatic Wyoming toad! It is one of the most endangered amphibians of North America, but that never stops these little toads from having some s***k in their step… well hop!🥹

📸: Alyssa Capriotti/USFWS

For over 130 years of operation, Leadville National Fish Hatchery has had many great employees that have made the hatchery what is it today.

We would like to remember the employees that made the ultimate sacrifice during their duty at LNFH.
We honor them today and every day.

Featured in the picture is fallen comrade Robert (Bob) Goris. Goris was a fish culturist for the hatchery from 1922 up until his death in 1934. Letters from his family talk about the days when Goris and his coworkers used trucks from WW1 to move fish that were transported in milk cans. Letters also stated that Goris had a team of horses to pull a sled in the winter to make it into Leadville.

To see Robert Goris and other USFWS employees honored in the Fallen Comrades Remembered web page, please use this link:

https://www.fws.gov/fallen-comrades-remembered

Despite the name, wingbees do not involve bees 🐝 but rather waterfowl! 🦆

A wingbee is an annual event where biologists come together to sort through various kinds of duck wings sent in by hunters within a certain flyway. The biologists gather information from the wings like species, s*x, and age. This data helps waterfowl managers to model populations and make decisions on hunting limitations.

Biologist Paige Moran was able to attend the Central Flyway wingbee at Flint Hills National Wildlife Refuge in Hartford, KS last week. The team was able to sort through and collect data on over 10k wings.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Leadville National Fish Hatchery’s very own Barbie and Ken💕

Did you know bald eagles mate for life? This mated pair of eagles have been calling the hatchery their winter home for years. We can only assume this picture depicts how their courtship conversation went 😉

Photo by Alyssa Capriotti/USFWS

Hatchery crew attire recently: insulated bib overalls and ski goggles! 🥽

Biologist Paige Moran decided that sunglasses weren’t cutting it with all this snow. Why not wear your ski goggles to work? After all, our fish still get fed even when we’re 2ft deep in snow!

📸: Alyssa Capriotti/USFWS

Wow. What an MLK day weekend!

Mother Nature decided to finally give us the snow we so desperately needed. With crazy snowfall totals and gusty winds of over 40mph, it was quite the winter storm. Thanks to our great employees, the Leadville Fish Hatchery is plowed and cleared for your snowy outdoor adventures!

Special shout out to Andrew Thatcher our facilities specialist and Paige Moran our biologist for braving the weather to make our hatchery accessible to visitors!

How did you celebrate MLK day?❄️

📸: Alyssa Capriotti/USFWS

This past fall season, the Rock Creek basin thermographs were collected and replaced with fresh new ones. This process involves miles and miles of backcountry hiking, sometimes trekking through thick vegetation and high alpine tundra. The thermographs were sent off to have the data extracted and interpreted as part of an ongoing research project.

Thermographs can give researches insight into the temperature trends of streams and watersheds. The Rock Creek basin thermographs in biotech Alyssa Capriotti’s hands have water temperature data from every hour on the hour from the past year!

It was great to have U.S. Rep Brittany Pettersen visit the fish hatchery and talk with our biologist, Paige. Thank you for visiting and hope to see you here again!

Stop by the hatchery this Wednesday morning for our last day of greenback cutthroat trout spawning!

It’s been a record year of egg collection with over 648,000 eggs collected so far. This record year could not have been accomplished without the awesome people that are involved with spawning. A big thank you to everyone that has helped this year and in all the years past!

The recovery efforts of this fish are important to the state of Colorado (it is the state fish after all) and we are proud to have the broodstock at Leadville National Fish Hatchery.

📸: Chris Kennedy/USFWS

Do you love hatcheries? Have you ever wondered about all the other hatcheries in the National Fish hatchery System? With spring break just around the corner (I know it is a couple months away but time to start planning now!) it might be a good time to go on a Hatchery Road Trip and start putting together your trip route map now!

Check out Leadville National Fish Hatchery trip page at https://www.fws.gov/story/hatchery-road-trip-leadville and other hatcheries to visit at https://www.fws.gov/hatchery-road-trip-central

Black Carp Identification Learn how to identify black carp using grass carp as a point of comparison. Commercial fishers, who encounter black carp as by-catch during normal fishing op...

CPW aquatic veterinarians, Colby Wells DeGraaf and Carrie Brace, spent the day at Leadville National Fish Hatchery collecting blood samples and caudal fin clippings from our Hayden Creek cutthroat trout. The fish being sampled here are a control group of diploid fish (able to reproduce).

They will compare the diploid samples to a group of triploid (sterile) Hayden Creek cutthroats. This comparison will help determine the percent of successful induced triploidy of the Haydens. This will give insight on whether or not the triploid fish can be stocked into areas where biologist want zero hybridization.

Thanks for coming to Leadville Colby and Carrie!

Despite frigid weather and slick, icy roads the community showed up in good numbers to shiver and see the many local floats for the Leadville Parade of Lights. The Leadville National Fish Hatchery put together a float and were accompanied by the Friends of the Leadville National Fish Hatchery. A frozen nose was had by all!