PAYSON — Last weekend’s floods damaged Arizona’s fish hatcheries, with the Tonto Creek Hatchery northeast of Payson taking the worst hit, AZFamily reported.
Wayne Jones, the Arizona Game and Fish Department’s hatchery program administrator, said every hatchery was affected in some way.
At Tonto Creek, water rushed into the feed room and bunkhouse, and floods washed out roads around the property. “We got some major washouts on the Spring Road, exposed our spring line,” Jones said.
The area got more than 2 inches of rain. U.S. Geological Survey data showed Tonto Creek near Roosevelt Lake rising from 4 feet late Saturday to 16 feet Sunday afternoon, according to AZFamily.
Workers were on site when the water arrived, and everyone made it out safely. Tonto Creek and two other hatcheries are closed to the public.
The good news for anglers: the raceways holding thousands of fish are intact, and fish stockings have not been affected, the department said.
AZGFD runs six hatcheries that produce about 400,000 pounds of fish a year, or 3 million fish stocked in 118 locations. Officials are now considering adding flood protection to renovation plans.
Sources: AZFamily. Thee Arizona Times uses AI-assisted reporting reviewed against the sources listed.
Photo: Rebekah Ewing/USFWS / Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.
