the dam site. Excavation of keyways in the canyon walls to provide future foundations for the concrete commenced in 1966, and continued through 1968. The first bucket of concrete was placed in early 1968, and by May 28, 1969, more than had been poured in the dam. Concrete placement was accomplished by a cableway system supported by three movable towers on the canyon rims, transporting buckets that each had a capacity of of wet concrete. The diversion tunnel was closed on September 27, 1971, allowing the reservoir to begin filling, and the last concrete was poured on the dam crest on January 27, 1973. Three generating units of the power plant were also installed in 1973, and by March 1, the reservoir had risen to a sufficient level to allow power generation to begin. The reservoir first reached full capacity on July 3, 1973. After the dam was completed, the USACE acquired of land adjacent to the reservoir (later expanded to ), and has since managed it for winter habitat of elk and white-tailed deer. Because Dworshak Dam is too high for a fish ladder to be economically feasible, the USACE constructed the Dworshak National Fish Hatchery (DNFH) at a cost of $21 million to mitigate losses of the North Fork steelhead run caused by Dworshak Dam. The hatchery is located on the small peninsula of land between the North Fork and the main Clearwater River directly above their confluence. Now operated by the National Fish Hatchery System, the fish hatchery actually went into operation in April 1969, four years before the dam was completed. The hatchery has a capacity of 6,000 adult fish, and releases about 3.4 million juveniles into the river system each year. The Dworshak Dam power station was designed to accommodate six generating units for purposes of peaking power production. However, this form of operation would cause excessively large flow fluctuations on the North Fork Clearwater River, and the main Clearwater River below their confluence at Ahsahka. A dam was to be built on the Clearwater River above Lenore to provide a forebay for smoothing out Dworshak releases, but due to opposition by local residents it was never built. Although it would have been fitted with a fish ladder, the Lenore dam would have affected steelhead and salmon migration to the entire upper Clearwater River and its tributaries, including the South Fork, Middle Fork, Lochsa, and