 Steve Rivas, assistant manager at the College of Southern Idaho Fish Hatchery, tries to catch fish that Clayton Winter, a CSI student, dumps into a bucket Wednesday afternoon as they take samples of trout. |
The College of Southern Idaho's Fish Hatchery is located at the bottom of Rock Creek Canyon, where water is drained from the higher ground and then sucked into the tanks where fish are raised.
And the location may be the hatchery's biggest challenge.
Not only does it hide one of the few college-operated hatcheries in Idaho, but it's also subject to changes being made above it on the higher ground. Recently, those changes included city approval of a new housing subdivision that could decrease the water supply needed to operate the hatchery.
"Well, it gives us the opportunity to teach the students how to maintain fish populations as if there was a drought, but we sure can't lose all the water," said Terry Patterson, who has taught at the hatchery for about 28 years. "All this (the hatchery) depends on what the impact will be to the water supply."
Source: Times-News