Featured Species

Erwin National Fish Hatchery specializes in the production of millions of eggs from two inland salmonid species: the Rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis). The hatchery maintains three different strains of Rainbow trout and one strain of Brook trout, each beginning their spawning cycle at different times in the year. The Rainbow and Brook eggs produced here supply multiple facilities in the Eastern U.S. and provide ample recreational fishing opportunities in countless waterways.

A small mussel half buried in sand with a small opening for filtering water

The Appalachian elktoe was listed as endangered in 1994, when only two populations were known to exist in the world - one in North Carolina’s Little Tennessee River and another in the Toe/Nolichucky rivers, straddling the North Carolina-Tennessee state line. Since then, additional populations...

FWS Focus

The round hickorynut mussel is a wide-ranging species, historically known from 12 states, though now occurs in nine, as well as the Canadaian Province of Ontario.  It is currently found in five major basins: Great Lakes, Ohio (where it is most prevalent), Cumberland, Tennessee, and Lower...

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Snuffbox

The snuffbox is a small- to medium-sized mussel, with males reaching up to 2.8 in (7.0 cm) in length (Cummings and Mayer 1992, p. 162; Parmalee and Bogan 1998, p. 108). The maximum length of females is about 1.8 in (4.5 cm) (Parmalee and Bogan 1998, p. 108). The shape of the shell is somewhat...

FWS Focus