Wildlife officials are just weeks away from turning the water on at the Lake Mead Fish Hatchery, a facility that had to abandon raising trout as water levels dropped at the nation’s largest reservoir. Now, the hatchery is refitted to bolster numbers of two endangered fish native in the Colorado River — the “rarest of the rare” bonytail chub, and the razorback sucker. … When water levels plummeted in 2022, the pipe that supplied water to the hatchery went dry, but problems at the hatchery started long before that. … In early 2007, an invasive species that spreads quickly and damages natural habitats was found in Lake Mead and lower areas of the Colorado River. That meant trout from the hatchery couldn’t be stocked anywhere outside those areas to eliminate the risk of introducing quagga mussels.

Other endangered and invasive species news:

• AndNowUKnow: Golden mussel poses threat to California agriculture and infrastructure
• Outdoor News (Plymouth, Mont.): Stocking of ‘Trojan’ male brook trout in Colorado helping restore native Colorado River cutthroat