The use of antimycin to remove non-native fishes and allow for the reintroduction of native Southern Appalachian brook trout in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has met with such success that other parks in the national system are seeking advice and guidance.

“We’re taking the model we developed here and creating a Standardized Operating Protocol for the Park Service,” said Steve Moore, chief fisheries biologist for the Smokies.

Moore will be travelling to the Great Basin National Park in Nevada later this month to assist with an antimycin project there. Moore said that other parks — including Rocky Mountain, Yellowstone, Olympic, North Cascades and the state of South Carolina — have expressed interest in learning about the use of antimycin to restore native fish populations.

According to Moore, antimycin is the best option biologists have.

“If you get deeper than three-and-a-half feet, electro fishing is not an option. Rotenone has proven to be extremely toxic. Antimycin seems to fit the bill,” he said. “Within four months of applying antimycin in Sams Creek, all the native insect species were back. It did not impact crayfish or salamanders or any other species. Everything we predicted in our original environmental assessment has held true. We hope to draft a manual that the rest of the park system can use in their management programs.”