Building On Success – A Long Term, Economical Proposal For Conserving and Restoring Southern Appalachian Brook Trout Populations

Since February of 2010, the U.S. Forest Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, and other federal, state, and private partners have been working together to develop a pilot proposal for restoring Southern Appalachian brook trout using the Tellico Southern Appalachian Brook Trout Hatchery as a core component. Building on previous successes the primary objectives of the new pilot project and partnership are: 1. Expand [...]

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Southern Appalachian Brook Trout Present and Future Threats And What Can Be Done?

During the last few decades beginning in the 1980′s, partnerships between state and federal agencies along with conservation organizations have worked together to restore Southern Appalachian strains of brook trout in the Southern Appalachians. Although by the 1970′s Southern Appalachian strain brook trout had dissapeared from the Nolichucky watershed, today 7% of the historical brook trout habitat in the watershed now contains SA brook [...]

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Rainbow and Brown Trout: An Important Part of the Southern Appalachian Culture Today.

It is important to point out that a major component of  the coldwater sportfishery that sportsmen enjoy today in the Southern Appalachians would not exist were it not for naturally reproducing rainbow trout and state and federal rainbow and brown trout stocking programs. There are many, many thousands of miles of cold and cool water streams, tailwaters, and reservoirs in the Southern Appalachians [...]

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The Decline of Southern Appalachian Brook Trout – 1970′s And To The Present Part III.

Until the 1970′s environmental compliance policies at the state and federal levels were very limited in the United States.  Although most of the broad scale destruction to Southern Appalachian watersheds had ceased, there was still many poor land use practices from road construction, clearcutting, land development, farming practices, coal mining, etc., that still continued to occur from the 1940′s to the [...]

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The Decline of Southern Appalachian Brook Trout – 1950′s Though 1970′s Part II.

Once private logging operations had depleted most of the marketable timber in the Southern Appalachians by the early 1900′s, hundreds of thousands of acres of lands that few wanted were eventually placed into public domain as a result of congressional passage of the Weeks Act of 1911.  Passage of this bill by Congress provided for the creation of public lands throughout the Southern [...]

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The Decline of Southern Appalachian Brook Trout – 1880′s Though 1940′s Part I.

In the 1880′s beginning at around 1600 feet in elevation Southern Appalachian brook trout would have occupied most of the upper elevation 2nd, and 3rd order tributaries. In primary river watersheds such as the Nolichucky River and other river basins within the Southern Appalachian brook trout range, this would not have been uncommon.  This contiguous connectivity of tributaries within a [...]

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Watershed Distribution and Genetic Distinction of Brook Trout in the Southern Appalachians

The historical watershed distribution of Southern Appalachian brook trout likely included the upper reaches of the Tennessee River Basin including the Hiwassee, Little Tennessee, French Broad, and Holston River watersheds; The New River Basin; The Pee Dee River Basin; The Santee River Basin which included the Catawba, Broad, and Saluda River watersheds; The Savannah River Basin, The Chattahoochee River Basin, and The Coosa [...]

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Brook Trout Distribution In North America 18,000 Years Ago – Part II.

It is hypothesized that around 18,000 years ago brook trout would have occupied the reach from what is Connecticut today to the southeastern most portion of Georgia and those watersheds that drain into the Atlantic Ocean in between. This would have provided two refuges for brook trout to re-colonize the distribution as we know it today – inland streams cool enough to support [...]

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Brook Trout Distribution In North America 18,000 Years Ago – Part I.

Eastern brook trout distribution in North America today generally occupies eastern Canada along with parts of the Great Lakes, North East, Mid-Atlantic, and Southeastern United States.  Although brook trout have been introduced into streams in the western United States, for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll concentrate on the Eastern brook trout’s distribution east of the Mississippi River.    By [...]

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What is a Brook Trout?

Salvelinus fontinalis - a member of the Salmonidae family order of Salmoniformes and commonly referred to as a trout, is actually a char and along with other species such as Dolly Varden, Lake trout, Arctic char, etc. belong to the genus Salvelinus.   The brook trout’s appearance is described as having a slightly forked to nearly straight-edged tail fin. Light green [...]

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Welcome!

Welcome to Brook Trout Happenings,  a blog designed to be a current source of information for activities surrounding a unique partnership between the U.S. Forest Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, conservation organizations, and many other important federal, state, and private partners involved in an initiative to propagate wild Southern Appalachian brook trout fingerlings for book trout restoration [...]

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