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Idaho hatchery to boost endangered sockeye

U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo along with Kurtis Plaster, from Idaho Fish and Game released the first sockeye salmon into Redfish Lake Creek in Aug. 2010 as part of a celebration marking the species' record upstream returns.
 (Idaho Statesman)
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo along with Kurtis Plaster, from Idaho Fish and Game released the first sockeye salmon into Redfish Lake Creek in Aug. 2010 as part of a celebration marking the species' record upstream returns. (Idaho Statesman)

FISHING – Construction on a once-abandoned sockeye fish hatchery project in eastern Idaho intended to bolster Idaho’s breeding program is back on schedule, Idaho Fish and Game officials said.

The $13.5 million Springfield Fish Hatchery between Aberdeen and Blackfoot should be finished by November.

Hatchery manager Doug Engemann said the hatchery is intended to boost the number of endangered sockeye salmon returning to Redfish Lake near Stanley in central Idaho. The Bonneville Power Administration is paying for the hatchery that’s being built on a 73-acre site.

“We’re moving past the genetic conservation component of the program into a bonafide stock rebuilding, stock recovery program,” Engemann said.



Rich Landers
Rich Landers joined The Spokesman-Review in 1977. He is the Outdoors editor for the Sports Department writing and photographing stories about hiking, hunting, fishing, boating, conservation, nature and wildlife and related topics.

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