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Idaho Fish and Game

Sawtooth Hatchery Provides Education and Entertainment

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Families traveling in the Sawtooth Mountains have the opportunity to get a first hand lesson in nature, and a bit of free entertainment at the Sawtooth Fish Hatchery. Every summer, Chinook salmon return to the hatchery after a 900 mile journey from the Pacific Ocean to the Salmon River near Stanley. The fish are returning to the place they were born after a remarkable journey through the Columbia, Snake and Salmon Rivers. For the past several years, enough Chinook salmon have returned to the Sawtooth Hatchery to provide limited fishing opportunity. The Chinook season is closed on the Salmon River, but the hatchery remains open to visitors. Those visitors can watch salmon jumping through several stages of the weir and into a trap. The large fish are easy to see in the holding tanks where they will stay until hatchery workers process them for spawning to ensure future generations of Chinook will make the same round-trip journey from the Salmon River to the Pacific Ocean and back again. Chinook salmon begin showing up at the hatchery in June, and continue to arrive through mid September. The Sawtooth Hatchery Visitor Center is open year round from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. To learn more about Chinook salmon returning to the Sawtooth Hatchery watch this YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3m0QKg72fw