New Model Identifies Perfect Habitat for Brook Trout

A new model that can accurately identify stream sections that still hold suitable habitat for wild brook trout will help fisheries managers from Maine to Georgia find and protect habitat for this fish, which is an economically, socially and ecologically important species.

LINK (via: The Fish Site)

New North Carolina specialty plate to help save brook trout

A new conservation license plate depicts the shiny, speckled, greenish-brown body of the brook trout, the state’s only native cold-water trout, swimming through a cool, blue, clean mountain stream.

The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission will use all proceeds from sales of the plate to support brook trout conservation and management, fund habitat protection and create public access to brook trout waters in Western North Carolina.

LINK (via:Citizen Times)

A minimum of 500 paid applications must be received by the Commission prior to July 1, 2015 for this plate to be produced.

100% of all proceeds will be used for brook trout habitat and fishing access.

Fish Porn

Spawning pair of wild mountain brook trout

Nov. SOTM Entry: CO Brookie

Taken from a backwater slough in Colorado, Lee finds a pretty slab of a brook trout.

Maine is home to 97 percent of the nation's lake and pond brook trout population

During the summer of 2013, Maine wildlife and forest groups joined forces to learn how to "chop 'n' drop" in the woods to improve stream habitat. Historically, Maine streams were straightened or cleared by the timber industry to most efficiently transport logs to the mills but, unfortunately, these objectives negatively impacted brook trout habitat.

With log drives a thing of the past, Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Maine Forest Service, Forest Society of Maine, Plum Creek and others are working together to reverse history and put wood back in the water to fast track stream recovery.

Maine is home to 97 percent of the intact wild brook trout lake and pond habitat in the eastern United States

Maine Audubon, Trout Unlimited and the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IFW) are seeking volunteer anglers to survey remote ponds in western and northern Maine for brook trout this coming fishing season. Survey information collected by anglers will be used by the nonprofit organizations and IFW to help identify populations of brook trout to be eligible for conservation management practices.

LINK (via: St. John Valley Times)