Chinook salmon
Before the construction of the Shasta and Keswick Dams, Chinook Salmon and steelhead were free to migrate to the upper reaches of the Sacramento, Pit and McCloud Rivers to spawn. Chinook salmon and steelhead returning from the ocean, travel up the Sacramento River and Battle Creek where they are enticed by water flow into the hatchery. Eggs are collected, fertilized and incubated artificially until they hatch. The young fish are then raised in ponds at the hatchery until they are sufficient size to be released and return to the ocean. Long term production goals for Coleman NFH Complex are as follows: 12,000,000 fall Chinook salmon, 1,200,000 late-fall Chinook salmon, 250,000 winter Chinook salmon, and 600,000 steelhead annually. Winter Chinook salmon are reared at the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery, a sub-station of Coleman NFH, located at the base of Shasta Dam.