Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery ~ Lake Mead National Recreation Area, Arizona
Posted by: 
brwhiz
N 35° 52.535 W 114° 39.817
11S E 710921 N 3972669
The Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is located at the north end of Willow Beach in the Arizona section of Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
Waymark Code: WMFF67
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 10/09/2012
Views: 10
From the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service web site:
The Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is located on the Arizona side of the Colorado River eleven miles below Hoover Dam. The hatchery is located on 47 acres of land within the Lake Mead National Recreation Area that is owned and operated by the National Park Service. We work with Rainbow trout for recreational fishing, and the endangered species bonytail chub, razorback sucker and relict leopard frog.
The Willow Beach area is a popular sport fishing location, drawing visitors from all over the southwest and California, since it is one of the few bodies of water in the desert. Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery stocks several locations along the Lower Colorado River and provides rainbow trout to tribal nations.
Achii Hanyo Native Fish Rearing Facility, the satellite location for Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery is located on lands of the Colorado River Indian Tribes. The primary focus of this facility is to raise the endangered bonytail chub, which is still in the early stages of recovery.
History
The Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery was founded by a Memorandum of Understanding between the Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on April 24, 1959. Construction began on Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery in 1959 and the first fish were stocked in 1962. The hatchery was established to use the cold water released from Hoover Dam to raise rainbow trout for sport fishing.
Historically, Willow Beach stocked rainbow trout from Lake Powell to Yuma, Arizona. Shortly after the Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973 the hatchery began working with threatened and endangered fish native to the Colorado River. In the past the hatchery has worked with the endangered Colorado pikeminnow and humpback chub.
Today the hatchery continues to raise rainbow trout and works with the endangered bonytail chub and razorback suckers in partnership with the Bureau of Reclamation and the states of California, Nevada and Arizona as part of the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program. We also work with the relict leopard frog by providing refugium and grow out facilities before releasing the species into areas where populations are being developed.