What We Do

Greers Ferry National Fish Hatchery is a coldwater fish hatchery that produces trout to support recreational fishing opportunities.  The angling opportunities provide a positive economic impact for the local communities and provide an activity for people to get outside and enjoy nature.  The next time you go fishing you might just catch a trout that was raised here at the hatchery.

Since 1871, national fish hatcheries have been responding to conservation challenges affecting America’s fish and other aquatic species. Producing fish continues to be an irreplaceable tool in managing or restoring fisheries along with habitat conservation. In doing so, we help provide recreation opportunities to America’s 34 million anglers who spend $36 billion annually in pursuit of their favored pastime. 

Management and Conservation

Since 1871, National Fish Hatcheries have been responding to conservation challenges affecting America’s fish and other aquatic species. Producing fish continues to be an irreplaceable tool in managing or restoring fisheries along with habitat conservation.

The hatchery produces rainbow and brook trout that are stocked into suitable habitat to enhance the fishery in the cold tailwaters below U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dams.  In cooperation with Arkansas and Oklahoma state game and fish agencies, the fish we produce helps meet the state's trout management goals and objectives.  Trout are stocked below these federally operated dams in the White and Ouachita river basins of Arkansas and Illinois and Red river basins in eastern Oklahoma.

The hatchery works in partnership with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to support restoration and recovery of imperiled aquatic species.  In collaboration with our conservation partners, we assist with projects to enhance the natural reproductive success of the endangered Ozark hellbender and increase numbers of the endangered speckled pocketbook mussel.

Our Services

Dams and the reservoirs they create change the natural flow of the river they impound and affect water temperatures below the dam. Mitigation is accomplished by stocking rainbow and brook trout -- fish that thrive in the cooler waters released below dams.    

The high quality and efficient trout we produce are just one aspect of our fish production that creates a positive ripple effect for all Americans. Recreational fishing for hatchery-produced trout results in considerable expenditures on recreation-related goods and services such as lodging, transportation, boats, fishing equipment, and other gear used by the fishing public. Everyone feels the positive economic impact, not just those associated with addressing the needs of anglers. This is especially important in small towns and rural areas near us and other national fish hatcheries. 

  • In 2020, for every $1 spent of the hatchery's operational budget, $40 was put back into the economy.  This amounts to a total economic output of more than $29 million from taxes, jobs created, and retail sales (gas, food, lodging, rods and reels, and bait and tackle), all of which was created because of the trout produced by the hatchery.
  • We produce approximately 700,000 trout annually, primarily working in partnership with the Arkansas and Oklahoma state game and fish agencies to help the states meet their trout-management goals. The trout we produce will be stocked into the cold tailwaters below U.S. Army Corps of Engineers operated dams located in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.    
  • The hatchery trout life cycle begins when we receive fertilized eggs from the brood stock hatchery. Most eggs we receive are provided by Erwin National Fish Hatchery, a national broodstock broodstock
    The reproductively mature adults in a population that breed (or spawn) and produce more individuals (offspring or progeny).

    Learn more about broodstock     hatchery in Erwin, Tennessee. 
  • Once hatched, the young fish are vulnerable and bio-security procedures must be followed to protect the fish from disease or physical harm.  Only staff are permitted in the juvenile fish-rearing area. 
  • As the eggs hatch and the yolk sacs are absorbed, the young trout swim up from the bottom of the troughs and are fed commercial fish food five to six times a day.  When they reach a size of approximately three inches (four-five months old), the fingerling trout are transferred to outdoor fish rearing raceways. 
  • Once outside the fish are fed and cared and over the next twenty months they will reach a stockable size of approximately eleven inches long.  Each raceway of fish may be fed from one to three times a day depending on the size of the fish. 
  • Throughout the year fish are harvested from the raceways and distributed by truck for stocking in suitable tailwaters in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma.  
  • We receive approximately 1 million fertilized rainbow (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and brook (Salvelinus fontinalis) trout eggs from national brood stock hatcheries each year. This enables us to stock approximately 200,000 pounds of fish each year.  
  • Trout produced at the hatchery enhance and increase recreational fishing opportunities in waters that have been modified by federal water development projects in Arkansas and Oklahoma. This has provided an enormous economic boost to the economy of many of these areas, generating business and income for people and local governments. 

Our Projects and Research

National fish hatcheries raise fish and other aquatic species – like crayfish and mussels - to help restore and sustain important fish and other aquatic species for the benefit of the American people. Freshwater mussels play very important roles in our rivers and lakes filtering the water and creating habitat for fish and aquatic insects fish like to eat. With declining fish populations and declining freshwater mussel populations becoming prevalent across the world, fish hatchery operations are more important than ever.

The Ozark hellbender is an endangered aquatic species and was listed in September 2011under the Endangered Species Act. Conservation projects are underway to restore the Ozark hellbender population. In partnership with our Ecological Services Division and the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission we build and supply artificial nesting boxes for the Ozark hellbender.  The known river habitat where Ozark hellbenders reproduce has declined in the Spring and Eleven Point rivers, so these nesting boxes are placed in those areas to increase the chances of reproductive success and enhance the recovery of the species.   

The speckled pocketbook mussel is an endangered mussel and was listed as endangered in February 1989 under the Endangered Species Act.  We work in close collaboration with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission to stabilize and increase numbers of the speckled pocketbook mussel and other imperiled mussels found in the Little Red River watershed.  Each spring we set out mussel cages in Greers Ferry Lake to produce mussels. The cages hold host fish that have larval mussels attached to their gills. Once the mussel develops and is no longer dependent on the fish, it drops off into a sand-filled tray at the bottom of the cage. The young mussels use the sand as their temporary home, consuming the natural food available and once they reach a target size they are collected to fulfil continued efforts to enhance the recovery of the  species.