Wild Trout Resources and Management in the Southern Appalachian Mountains

Abstract

Information acquired through surveys of six state and federal natural resource management agencies was used to obtain current estimates of the wild trout resources of the southern Appalachian Mountains and to review associated management programs. Overall, the southern Appalachians contain some 18,000 km of coldwater streams with the potential for supporting salmonid populations. Wild trout inhabit about 9,660 km of these streams and native brook trout are found in approximately 2,580 km. These substantial and comparatively unique resources are becoming increasingly important from many perspectives as potential threats to their continued existence increase. Current management programs and strategies employed by the agencies surveyed reflect the basic similarity of wild trout resources and management needs throughout the region. A notable amount of variability remains regarding angling regulations and, to a lesser degree, native brook trout management. Such variability is not biologically‐based, but rather reflects public influences in wild trout management schemes. Generally, the efficacy of wild trout management has improved as greater knowledge and understanding of the region's wild trout resources is obtained and management programs and strategies are further refined. The southern Appalachians provide an example of a collective transition toward more progressive management of a valuable fishery resource.

Aquatic and terrestrial invertebrate drift in southern Appalachian Mountain streams: implications for trout food resources

“…Southern Appalachian streams typically have low standing stocks of trout [i.e. <4 g (wet weight) m −2 ; Harshbarger, 1978; Whitworth & Strange, 1983; Habera & Strange, 1993] compared with productive streams [10–30 g (wet weight) m −2 ; Waters, 1988] because of low benthic productivity and drift densities (Coulston & Maughan, 1981; Whitworth & Strange, 1983; Cada, Loar & Slade, 1987a; Wallace, Webster & Lowe, 1992; Habera & Strange, 1993). Benthic productivity in trout streams of the southern Appalachians ranges from 5.0 to 21.0 g ash‐free dry mass (AFDM) m −2 year −1 (Wohl, Wallace & Meyer, 1995; Grubaugh, Wallace & Houston, 1997).…”

Forecasting fish biomasses, densities, productions, and bioaccumulation potentials of mid‐atlantic wadeable streams

“…These studies are for streams in the mountain‐top mining and valley fill regions of KY‐WV (Stauffer and Ferreri ), for rivers/streams in NRB of New York (Baldigo and Lawrence ), for TWT rivers/streams (Habera et al , 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), and for BME rivers/streams (Radwell ). All MAR values are based on the ending year of 25 y baseline BASS simulations.…”

“…Table also summarizes our calculated descriptive statistics of total fish biomasses and population densities using data reported for other eastern US stream studies whose species composition is similar to that of the MAR; these include our assumed validation study by Stauffer and Ferreri () for the KY‐WV and the 3 reference studies that we assumed to represent fisheries in good condition (i.e., the BME study by Radwell [], the NRB study by Baldigo and Lawrence [], and the TWT study by Habera et al [, , , 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009]). Whereas our simulated total population densities agree with those observed for the KY‐WV, NRB, and the TWT studies, they are significantly lower than those observed for the BME study (Figure ).…”

“…We identified 3 field studies that can be reasonably assumed to support healthy fisheries; these were studies by Radwell () for 10 rivers and streams in the Boston Mountain ecoregion (BME) of Arkansas, by Baldigo and Lawrence () for 14 rivers and streams in Neversink River Basin (NRB) of New York, and by Habera et al (, , , 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) for 21 eastern Tennessee wild trout (TWT) rivers and tributaries. The BME study was considered to support healthy fisheries because 6 of its 10 rivers and streams are listed under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 (PL 90‐542) passed by the US Congress to preserve free‐flowing rivers with outstanding natural and cultural values.…”

Three‐Pass Depletion Sampling Accuracy of Two Electric Fields for Estimating Trout Abundance in a Low‐Conductivity Stream with Limited Habitat Complexity

“…Electrofishing in waters of exceptionally low conductivity ( 20 lS/cm), such as many trout streams in the southern Appalachian Mountains, requires high voltage (.500 V) and workers historically selected alternating current (AC) waveforms to effectively capture fish (Lennon and Parker 1957;Seehorn 1968;Habera and Strange 1993). Contemporary DC or pulsed-DC (PDC) gear lacked power sources capable of producing power densities high enough to immobilize trout and generally were not used unless water conductivity was increased with salt (Gatz et al 1986;Cada et al 1987).…”