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The Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Fish Research Hatchery (FRH) is located a few miles west of Fort Collins, Colorado, in the small town of Bellvue. The main hatchery building, concrete raceways and shop were built in the mid 1960’s with additions added over the years. From the very beginning the mission of this facility was to provide support to the Aquatic Section (researchers, biologists and hatcheries), and today the mission remains the same. The Fish Research Hatchery personnel work closely with CPW Aquatic Researchers, Native Species Coordinators, biologists, hatchery managers, various recovery programs and CPW administrators to accomplish research recovery goals and objectives.

Over the years, FRH’s has done such a wide spectrum of aquatic research (from fish nutrition and salmonid brood stock development to boreal toad production) that it would be hard to list all of the projects. Past research and projects done at the FRH can be reviewed in prior Federal Aid Job Progress Reports under “Hatchery Studies." A couple of current projects and research topics are briefly described below.

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Fish Research Hatchery is participating in Dr. George Schisler’s “Whirling Disease Resistant Strain Research”. This research has now been integrated into Colorado’s hatchery system where Hofer strains are being produced for stocking throughout Colorado. The FRH role is to produce, culture and maintain Hofer brood and Harrison Lake brood rainbow trout. Please check Dr. Schisler’s web site for more details on this project.

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Fish Research Hatchery is currently involved in propagating greenback cutthroat brood stock by hatching and rearing two types of greenbacks for the Poudre Rearing Unit. Eggs are brought in from the Poudre Rearing Unit (PRU) every spring.

Each strain of greenback brood stock is unique and requires complete isolation from any other brood stocks at the unit. Extreme caution is used throughout the rearing process to ensure complete isolation of the strains. As an example, all lots of fish are uniquely fin-clipped and/or marked before leaving the main hatchery and/or isolation unit for future identification (checked before spawning). The main goal of maintaining these brood stocks is to capture as much genetic diversity as possible of each sub-strain’s progeny. Greenback cutthroat trout are listed as threatened on the state list. There is a recovery plan in place for the greenback cutthroat under which CPW biologists request a certain number for recovery projects (reclamation and restoration) and recreational stocking (high mountain lake plants). Over the years, there has been more and more public demand to utilize this fish in the CPW stocking plan. 

On an annual basis, FRH produces approximately 10,000 potential Greenback cutthroat brooders. Potential greenback brood fish are transferred from FRH to the Poudre Rearing Unit depending on PRU needs.

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The Fish Research Hatchery is currently renovating and creating a new isolation building for research on eastern plains cyprinids (minnows) and other native fish species. This building will house and operate experiments with species of special concern and endangered minnows. More to come in the future!