Saratoga National Fish Hatchery is part of the
National Fish Hatchery System operated by the
United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is a List of federal agencies in the United States, U.S. federal government agency within the United States Department of the Interior which oversees the management of fish, wildlife, ...
. 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
Sperm (: sperm or sperms) is the male reproductive Cell (biology), cell, or gamete, in anisogamous forms of sexual reproduction (forms in which there is a larger, female reproductive cell and a smaller, male one). Animals produce motile 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.
History
The Saratoga NFH was established in 1911 and construction of its facilities began in March 1915. It was originally established to meet stock demands in Wyoming and to be expanded as the state grew.
While it had maintained a wide variety of broodstock from its opening in 1915, Saratoga NFH was not officially designated a broodstock hatchery until 1966.
The facilities of the Saratoga NFH were renovated and expanded in 1995 and 1996.
Activities
Saratoga NFH has broodstock for egg production of various subspecies of
lake trout,
brown trout, and
rainbow trout
The rainbow trout (''Oncorhynchus mykiss'') is a species of trout native to cold-water tributary, tributaries of the Pacific Ocean in North America and Asia. The steelhead (sometimes called steelhead trout) is an Fish migration#Classification, ...
. Saratoga NFH also rears
Yellowstone cutthroat trout for stock in various federal and state parks and for tribal lands in Wyoming.
Saratoga NFH produces
Lewis lake trout eggs for the Great Lakes Restoration Project,
Plymouth Rock brown trout for various hatcheries nationwide
and holds backup broodstock for
McConaughy rainbow trout.
Tagging studies show that 75 percent of trout caught from
Lake Huron were produced by the Saratoga NFH.
Saratoga NFH was one of several hatcheries that had made efforts towards the reintroduction of
greenback cutthroat trout in various lakes and rivers by 2002.
In 1997, Saratoga NFH began breeding
Wyoming toads as
refugia and for future reintroduction efforts. It was the first in the NFHS to use its resources to raise endangered amphibians.
It has since supplied hundreds of adult toads to
Mortenson Lake National Wildlife Refuge and other locations for reintroduction, including more than 900 adult toads in a single release in June 2016.
References
{{reflist
National Fish Hatcheries of the United States
Landmarks in Wyoming
Agricultural buildings and structures in Wyoming
Buildings and structures in Carbon County, Wyoming
1911 establishments in Wyoming