Carson National Fish Hatchery

The Carson National Fish Hatchery, built by the Civilian Conservation Corps, began rearing salmon and trout in 1937. Carson National Fish Hatchery produces 1.17 million spring Chinook smolts (young salmon) annually, including 250,000 smolts for tribal efforts to restore salmon to the Walla Walla River Basin. This program has the goal of producing a naturally spawning, self-sustaining population of spring Chinook in the Walla Walla Basin. The hatchery also helps mitigate for fish losses in the Columbia River Basin due to the impacts of main stem hydropower, and contributes to important tribal ceremonial and subsistence fisheries as well as non-tribal sport fisheries.