Iron River National Fish Hatchery

03/19/2026

Join us for our annual "Sap to Syrup" event on Saturday, March 28 at 11:00 am. Experience the entire maple syrup process from tapping to tasting! There will only be one demonstration, so don't be late. A portion of the event may take place outside. Please dress appropriately.

The event will conclude with a bowl of ice cream and maple syrup!

03/12/2026

Good news! Our seasonal job application period got extended. You still have time to apply!

Iron River National Fish Hatchery: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/859727300
Announcement number: TS-26-12898847-LP-DE

This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the season’s work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.

Open and Closing dates: 03/04/2026 to 03/20/2026
Salary: $24.18 to - $31.43 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 7

See previous post for more information.

03/04/2026

South Shore Community Posting Board Please share with your local contacts. This is a great seasonal job opportunity.

WE ARE HIRING A SEASONAL BIOLOGICAL TECHNICIAN:

Job link: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/859727300
Announcement number: TS-26-12898847-LP-DE

This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the season’s work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.

Open and Closing dates: 03/04/2026 to 03/10/2026
Salary: $24.18 to - $31.43 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 7
Duties for Fish Hatchery and Propagation Positions:
• Assists with hatchery operations which could include spawning, rearing fish in tanks or raceways, caring for fertilized eggs in trays, observing fish behavior in response to feeding, cleaning, and husbandry operations, determining feed regiments, and treating fish disease.
• Assists hatchery crew in providing daily care to fish in an aquaculture facility.
• Collects, compiles, and summarizes data.
• Performs general maintenance required for general fish hatchery upkeep and maintenance including using simple hand tools or power equipment, landscaping tools (grass mowers, shrub trimmers, etc.), and other tools for minor repairs on hatchery equipment.
• Assists with training new employees.

Minimum Qualifications:
• One year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility equivalent to grade GS-06 in the Federal service. Specialized experience may include: care and feeding of all life stages of fish. Record and monitor fish health, maintain and update fish culture and water quality records, maintain and improve hatchery infrastructure, equipment and grounds. Rearing, distribution and maintenance of eggs, fry, parr, smolts, yearlings, and broodstock. Collect, process and inventory eggs. Follow established spawning procedures, perform routine health assessments including: necropsies of morbid fish, collecting ovarian fluid samples, external examination of fish for parasites and collecting blood samples. OR
• Successfully completed one year of graduate level education (18 semester/27 quarter hours or the school's equivalent) in an accredited college or university leading to a master's or equivalent graduate degree that included courses directly related to the occupation, such as fishery biology, ichthyology, limnology, aquaculture, etc. OR
• A combination of education and experience as described in 1 and 2 above which together equals 100% of the requirement

03/04/2026

WE ARE HIRING A SEASONAL BIOLOGICAL TECHNICIAN:

Job link: https://www.usajobs.gov/job/859727300
Announcement number: TS-26-12898847-LP-DE

This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the season’s work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.

Open and Closing dates: 03/04/2026 to 03/10/2026
Salary: $24.18 to - $31.43 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 7
Duties for Fish Hatchery and Propagation Positions:
• Assists with hatchery operations which could include spawning, rearing fish in tanks or raceways, caring for fertilized eggs in trays, observing fish behavior in response to feeding, cleaning, and husbandry operations, determining feed regiments, and treating fish disease.
• Assists hatchery crew in providing daily care to fish in an aquaculture facility.
• Collects, compiles, and summarizes data.
• Performs general maintenance required for general fish hatchery upkeep and maintenance including using simple hand tools or power equipment, landscaping tools (grass mowers, shrub trimmers, etc.), and other tools for minor repairs on hatchery equipment.
• Assists with training new employees.

Minimum Qualifications:
• One year of specialized experience comparable in scope and responsibility equivalent to grade GS-06 in the Federal service. Specialized experience may include: care and feeding of all life stages of fish. Record and monitor fish health, maintain and update fish culture and water quality records, maintain and improve hatchery infrastructure, equipment and grounds. Rearing, distribution and maintenance of eggs, fry, parr, smolts, yearlings, and broodstock. Collect, process and inventory eggs. Follow established spawning procedures, perform routine health assessments including: necropsies of morbid fish, collecting ovarian fluid samples, external examination of fish for parasites and collecting blood samples. OR
• Successfully completed one year of graduate level education (18 semester/27 quarter hours or the school's equivalent) in an accredited college or university leading to a master's or equivalent graduate degree that included courses directly related to the occupation, such as fishery biology, ichthyology, limnology, aquaculture, etc. OR
• A combination of education and experience as described in 1 and 2 above which together equals 100% of the requirement

02/23/2026

Don't forget to join us this coming Saturday from 7:00 - 9:00 pm. Come enjoy the trails in the evening light!

01/07/2026

Join us on Saturday, February 28 for an evening of family friendly activities. The Candlelight Trek event will be back from 7:00 - 9:00 pm.

This free event features a short, easy trail lit with luminaries. Drop in anytime during the event and enjoy the trail at your own pace. Bring your own skis or snowshoes or just hike the trail. Don’t have snowshoes? We have some available in a variety of sizes. (Limited quantity first come, first serve). Children must be accompanied by an adult.

12/08/2025

WE ARE HIRING SEASONAL BIOLOGICAL TECHNICIANS:

Ashland Fish and Wildlife Conservation Office: www.usajobs.gov/job/851514200
This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the seasons work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.
Open and Closing dates: 12/08/2025 to 12/12/2025
Salary: $19.33 to - $31.40 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 5
Duties:
Participates in multifaceted fish population studies, including carrying out a variety of research and survey methods, analyzing established data, and monitoring environmental elements related to conservation, management, and/or control of fish populations.

Assists with preparation, maintenance, and use of field equipment such as boats, nets, traps, electrofishing equipment, and other equipment as necessary to accomplish routine fishery management and aquatic habitat investigations.

Uses a variety of laboratory and field equipment to perform standardized tasks for studies.

Collects, compiles, and summarizes data.

Iron River National Fish Hatchery: www.usajobs.gov/job/851568900
This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the seasons work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.
Open and Closing dates: 12/08/2025 to 12/12/2025
Salary: $21.54 to - $31.31 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 6

Iron River National Fish Hatchery: www.usajobs.gov/job/851569300
This is a temporary appointment intended for seasonal work that is less than 6 months or 1040 hours from the date of appointment/service year. It is expected this position will be terminated upon completion of the seasons work. The agency may non-competitively rehire an eligible temporary seasonal worker in subsequent years who works less than 6 months or 1040 hours in their service year.
Open and Closing dates: 12/08/2025 to 12/12/2025
Salary: $23.94 to - $34.79 per hour
Pay Scale and Grade: GS 7

Duties for Fish Hatchery and Propagation Positions:
Assists with hatchery operations which could include spawning, rearing fish in tanks or raceways, caring for fertilized eggs in trays, observing fish behavior in response to feeding, cleaning, and husbandry operations, determining feed regiments, and treating fish disease.

Assists hatchery crew in providing daily care to fish in an aquaculture facility.

Collects, compiles, and summarizes data.

Performs general maintenance required for general fish hatchery upkeep and maintenance including using simple hand tools or power equipment, landscaping tools (grass mowers, shrub trimmers, etc.), and other tools for minor repairs on hatchery equipment.

Assists with training new employees.

10/01/2025

Due to the federal government shutdown, this account is not being actively updated.
For more information, please visit:

Operations in the Absence of Appropriations

08/22/2025

We can tell summer is coming to an end at the hatchery. Our RV volunteers, Tom and Carolyn, are heading back onto the road. We are so appreciative of the energy, talent, and work ethic they provided to the hatchery. They will be missed. Help us wish them luck on the adventures that lay ahead of them!

Photo 1: Tom and Carolyn helping the staff to sort lake trout broodstock.
Photo #2: Tom and Carolyn moving brook trout broodstock.

07/10/2025

Distribution season ended earlier this week. All production fish spawned in the fall of 2023, have successfully be placed in Lake Michigan (lake trout) or some Michigan and Minnesota tributaries of Lake Superior (coaster brook trout). But this doesn’t mean the workload got lighter at the hatchery!

Around this time every year, fish are moved from the Tank Room into the Production Building. (These are the fish that were spawned in the fall of 2024.) Each tank is crowded, moving the fish to the end of the tank, before they are netted into a trailer. The trailer is driven to the Production Building and parked alongside a raceway. The fish are then released into the raceway. This gives them more room to grow, as the raceways are considerably larger, deeper and longer than the tanks.

Video #1: Biological Technician, Josh, nets fish from a tank and places them into the trailer.
Video #2: Lake trout are dumped from the net into a tank on a trailer.
Video #3: Biological Technician, Zack, drives the trailer to the Production Building.
Video #4: Fish are released into their new home.

07/03/2025

Distribution season is beginning to wrap up. This time of year, lake trout are put onto trucks, driven to a specific port along Lake Michigan, loaded onto a boat, and then stocked over various reefs. Today’s trip is heading to Julien’s Reef near Milwaukee, WI.

Fish are moved from the raceways to the trucks via a fish pump and tower. Fish are crowded close to the pump, then sucked into a tube, before making their way onto a truck loaded with water, salt (replaces their slime coat), and ice (cools water). Once the truck reaches the boat, another tube is hooked up and the fish slide into the boat hatches.

Thankfully, we have assistance from other federal hatcheries, including Jordan River (MI), Pendills Creek (MI), and Sullivan Creek (MI). Together staff ensure all the fish from each hatchery reach their destination.

Photo #1: Fish pump set up in a raceway.
Photo #2: Fish tower along a raceway with multiple trucks waiting to get filled.
Photo #3: A forklift is used to load ice onto the trucks.
Photo #4: Hatchery Manager, Brandon Keesler, crowds the fish close to the pump.
Video #1: Video of fish coming out of the fish tower and dropping into the truck tank.

06/25/2025

What a neat way to explore the hatchery grounds! Not only can you get in your steps, but you can read a neat story at the same time. Come visit! The trails are open sunrise to sunset, seven days a week.