Smoky Mountain Brook Trout Milestone

June 13, 2006 By: Marshall Cutchin

Since April, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has allowed anglers to keep brook trout, a mark of progress in efforts to create a brook trout “redoubt” in the U.S. southeast, where logging and acid rain have contributed to huge brookie population losses. “After 30 years, the Smokies have restored 11 stream segments — totaling 17.2 miles — to pure brook trout populations. Brookies also now coexist with nonnative trout in another 69 miles of streams.” Duncan Mansfield of the Associated Press.