Welcome
Willard National
Fish Hatchery
5501B Cook-Underwood Road
Cook, WA 98605
509-538-2305
Hatchery Manager - Steve Wingert
Recovery
Act At Work
Directions
The Willard hatchery is located five miles north of Highway 14 up
the west end of the Cook-Underwood Road on the Little White
Salmon River. Visitors are welcome from 7:30 am to 4:00 pm
daily.
Hatchery
History
The Willard National Fish Hatchery is part of the Little White Salmon/Willard
National Fish Hatchery complex with administrative offices located at the Little
White Salmon hatchery. It was built in 1952 and has been used primarily for raising
coho salmon since the mid-1960s.
Coho salmon are adapted to the cold water of the
Little White Salmon River. Willard NFH is currently an integral component
of the Yakama Nation Mid-Columbia coho salmon reintroduction effort
aimed at reestablishing self sustaining populations of coho salmon
in the Wenatchee River Basin of north central Washington.
Coho salmon eggs, derived from a stock of fish returning to and spawned
on the Wenatchee River in north central Washington, are transported
to Willard during December at the eyed-up stage. They continue their
incubation, are moved into indoor tanks, and then to outdoor raceways
that are designed to provide shade to the growing young fish. When
the fish are 16 months old they are loaded into tanker trucks and
transferred back to the Wenatchee River for release by biologists
from the Yakama Nation.
A majority of the Willard NFH project funding
is supported by the Yakama Nation using Bonneville Power Administration
funds. This is a cooperative effort by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Service and the Yakama Nation to assist with the development of locally
adapted, naturally spawning populations of fish in the Wenatchee River
watershed. Due to NOAA-Fisheries Mitchell Act budget reductions, the
Yakama Nation agreed to cover 60% of Willard NFH operational costs
with remaining costs supplemented by Mitchell Act appropriations. The
Willard National Fish Hatchery program also includes the production
of spring Chinook salmon for release into the Little White Salmon River. Returning
adult fish resulting from the Willard releases contribute to a popular
sport and tribal fishery in Drano Lake.
