The nursery at the hatchery is a bio-secure area. This means hatchery staff must wash their hands and arms and wear raingear, including boots, that is only used in the nursery when attending to the young salmonids. All of this is done to prevent contaminants coming in from outside. Tanks are disinfected between batches of fry and supplied with flowing clean water from Dworshak Reservoir. The hatchery takes these precautions because young salmonids are more susceptible to diseases.