Flash flooding kills half a million fish at Mescalero hatchery

Flash flooding ripped through Tularosa Canyon on the Mescalero Apache Reservation on Monday, displacing and then killing approximately 500,000 rainbow trout housed in the tribe’s fish hatchery.

The floods crippled the hatchery, killing 80% of the fish that are used to stock lakes across the state and Southwest.

People in the community surrounding the canyon were told to be ready for evacuation Monday afternoon as muddy, murky waters poured off the burn scar on South Tularosa Canyon. Though several other buildings, such as the community center, tribal store and utility company, were also evacuated, the hatchery was hit the worst, said manager Tori Marden.

Current estimates put the flooding damage at $1.7 million, according to Mescalero Apache Tribal President Thora Welsh Padilla.

“There was kinda no avoiding it,” Marden said. “We’re right at the opening of the canyon, so either way we were going to get hit. You can try your hardest to prevent a lot of things, but obviously Mother Nature can have other plans.”

When the floodwaters receded, they left mud, silt and dead fish in their wake, Marden said.

Scores of fish pressed up against the screens inside the hatchery and more still washed downstream, Marden said. There were so many dead fish that volunteers used a front loader tractor to scoop up piles of the creatures and bury them, according to a social media post.

The floods took out fish of all life stages, from fry, freshly hatched and the size of a matchhead, to full-sized trout.

“We do have a real funky smell going on right now,” Marden said of the surrounding area.

Few trout survived in the turbid water of their raceways. Staff are still assessing the damage, and Marden suspects the hatchery won’t be able to fulfill orders for a while.

From the Isleta and Nambé pueblos to the San Carlos Apache Reservation in Arizona, the hatchery stocks many of the tribal waters in the region.

It can take 12 to 18 months to raise fish from eggs to a stockable size, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. In the meanwhile, Marden expects other hatcheries in the state to step up to fill the gap.

This isn’t the first time the hatchery has faced fires and the floods that followed.

In the 2000s, the facility flooded twice, wiping out stock, Marden said. In the aftermath of this latest flood, the hatchery will likely revise its emergency flood plans, Marden said, but for now there are more immediate problems.

Cleanup is still underway at the facility. Mud has gunked up the pipes, screens and raceways while dead fish litter the ground outside. Help from the Youth Conservation Corps workers, tribal agencies and other community volunteers has sped up the process, Marden said.

“Without them, I don’t think we could have gotten this far,” Marden said.