Survival of a species

With headwaters originating in the pristine wilderness of State Game Lands 57, Bowman’s Creek looks like the perfect waterway to harbor a thriving population of wild eastern brook trout.

But it isn’t.

Pelted by acid rain, the stream turned acidic and the Eastern brook trout disappeared. It’s a tragic tale for Pennsylvania’s only native species of trout, but unfortunately it’s also a story that has been replayed throughout most of the wild eastern brook trout’s range, from Maine to Georgia.

The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture was founded in 2005 to restore brook trout habitat and bring back the species to fishable levels. The organization is a partnership of several groups, including Trout Unlimited, and it is working with all 17 states in the brook trout’s native range to draft management plans to improve water quality and restore brook trout habitat.

On Wednesday, the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission did its part when it added the Eastern brook trout to the state’s Wildlife Action Plan. The plan outlines several goals and identifies eastern brook trout as a Species of Greatest Concern. It is also laden with numbers that shed light on the seriousness of the situation.

In its entire native range from Maine to Georgia, 45 percent of the sub-watersheds lost over half the habitat for brook trout, and the species has been wiped out in 20 percent of the sub-watersheds.

The species has been eliminated or greatly reduced in 70 percent of its range in Pennsylvania.

Reasons for the decline are many, according to Nathaniel Gillespie, fisheries scientist and Eastern lands protection coordinator for Trout Unlimited.

“It’s a combination of historical land uses, like mining and timbering,” he said. “And that has been coupled with current impacts like agriculture, development, roads, and acid precipitation.”

But it’s the acid rain that has had the greatest impact on some local streams, according to Mike Romanowski, president of the Stanley Cooper Jr. Chapter of Trout Unlimited.

Romanowski pointed to Bowman’s Creek and Mehoopany Creek in Wyoming County as places where native brook trout populations dropped significantly due to acid rain.

On Bowman’s Creek, for example, Romanowski said the Trout Unlimited chapter partnered with the Bowman’s Creek Watershed Association to dump tons of lime in the stream since the late 1990s. The lime, which raises the pH of water and counteracts the effects of acid rain, had a dramatic impact.

“Around five years after we started liming, the wild brook trout population exploded in those areas,” Romanowski said. “The liming proved that habitat can be reclaimed.”

While liming and replanting trees can help brook trout thrive, Gillespie hoped the PFBC would explore new regulations to protect them.

Norm Gavlick, the region’s commissioner on the PFBC board, said regulation changes will be discussed but nothing has been decided.

“There’s the thought we should stock trout in lakes only to limit impacts on the natives in the streams,” he said. “There may be changes with the trout stocking or other things, but there are a lot of questions and issues the board will be discussing.”