week of 7/24/02
 
 
 


Restoring the order
Brookies hauled back to GSMNP’s Sams Creek
By Don Hendershot

“Another day at the office.”

“Just a walk in the park.”

Members of the entourage kidded as they struck out from Elkmont in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the trail along Little River. You could tell, however, by Smokies’ chief fisheries biologist Steve Moore’s stride there was a purpose behind this walk.

The group was moving about 150 native brook trout from the upper reaches of Little River and relocating them in Sams Creek as part of the park’s ongoing brook trout restoration project. Part of Moore’s staff had been camping near the headwaters of Little River for a couple of days, initiating a “mark and move” study and capturing the brookies that would be moved to Sams Creek.

Moore was leading a group that included fisheries staff, Student Conservation Association (SCA) volunteers, Trout Unlimited volunteers, Don McGowan, photographer for Friends of the Smokies, and me. We headed 5.5 miles up the trail to the campsite. Once there, we would meet Moore’s assistant, Matt Kulp, and the rest of the fisheries crew, gather the electro-fishing equipment and the captured brookies, and pack everything back down to Elkmont.

At Elkmont, we would meet a volunteer from Tennessee Wildlife Resources (TWR) with a tank truck. The trout would go into the tanks, the truck would transport them to the parking area at Sams Creek, and from there they would be put back in packs and carried up Sams Creek to three pre-selected release sites. The fish packs were metal frames with plastic containers attached. The containers filled with fish and water weighed as much as 60 pounds. There were battery-operated aerators on the packs to help keep the water oxygenated. Moore strapped on one of the fish tanks, everyone else grabbed a pack, and we headed back for Elkmont. There were about 20 “porters,” and every back and most hands were full heading down.

SCA volunteers Brittany Cavett and Susan Beville generally spend their days directing and educating visitors to Cades Cove. An 11-mile hike, half with a heavy pack, is a great chance to stretch their legs. Jerry Deweese, past president of Land O’Sky Chapter of TU has been volunteering with Smokies fisheries staff since 1996.

“I’m lovin’ it,” is the way Shane Bush of Kansas City described his job. Bush, a wildlife student at Northwest Missouri State, is working for the fisheries staff this summer. “It’s great work experience,” Bush said.

Volunteers have meant a lot to the park’s brook trout restoration efforts.

“We have taken $70,000 of Park Service special projects funding and, thanks to volunteers, parlayed that into nearly a quarter of a million dollars,” Moore said. Some of those volunteers include National and North Carolina and Tennessee chapters of TU, National Fish and Wildlife Federation, Friends of the Smokies, Federation of Fly Fishers, University of Tennessee, North Carolina Wildlife Resources, Tennessee Wildlife Resources, area fly fishing shops and others.

About halfway down to Elkmont the crew stopped at a stream crossing to switch the water in the fish tanks. Even with aerators, no chances are taken that the fish could be harmed or even killed. Moore takes great pride in the hard work of his staff and the results of the brook trout project.

Moore said park officials realized by the early 1970s that more than 70 percent of original brook trout habitat had been lost. According to Moore, decisions made to ban fishing for brook trout in the park at that time were made without sufficient scientific data. He said they were made in good faith.

“The park is mandated to protect and preserve native species. Resource managers at the time were trying to do that, they just didn’t have good scientific data,” Moore said.

He said studies Kulp and he have done recently show there is no difference in brook trout populations (size and/or structure) between non-fished streams in the Smokies and fished streams outside the park. This new information has led to a three-year experimental brook trout season in eight streams in the park. Beech Flats Creek, Bunches Creek, Hazel Creek and Lost Bottom Creek in North Carolina along with Cosby Creek, Indian Camp Prong, Walker Prong and Fish Camp Prong in Tennessee are currently open for brookies. All current park creel and size limits apply.

The brook trout parade has to navigate a yellow jacket nest at a footbridge along the trail. For some it means a detoured stream crossing. For those of us bringing up the rear (you know “sweep” is a very important position) it meant moving to one side of the bridge and nonchalantly strolling across while holding our breath.

The bridge was crossed with no casualties, and the TWR truck was waiting when we arrived back at Elkmont. Here, the crew split. Some were through for the day, some were back to normal duties and some would accompany the fish to Sams Creek and assist with the release.

Lunch was eaten on the run as we loaded in the jeep and headed for Sams Creek. There we would meet new volunteers (fresh legs) and head upstream to the release sites. Most of the new volunteers were members of the Little River chapter of TU.

“Little River TU works closely with the fisheries staff. It’s in our charter to support the park’s fisheries department. We work on brook trout restoration, monitoring and acid deposition,” said Roy Hawk president of the Little River TU.

There were “hellos” and “hurrah” at Sams Creek but no time was lost. Moore’s staff was always cognizant of the fact that they were transporting precious cargo. While volunteers chided and kidded one another, Moore’s staff quietly and deftly transferred the fish from the tank truck to the backpacks. By the time sodas and sandwiches were wolfed down the packs were ready to go. Blisters and physical ailments aside, there was renewed enthusiasm generated by fresh volunteers and the knowledge we were only an hour or so away from completing our mission. Moore’s crew, along with Deweese and another volunteer, Scott Grahl, led the way. They were headed to the upper release sites.

Reminding everyone that I was there to cover the story, I went with Moore to the lower release site. The setting was unbelievable. We passed the boulders and cascades that provide the natural barriers that keep introduced rainbows and browns from intruding on the upper reaches of Sams Creek. The crew in front of us hurried a bear along its way. We shared the trail with a gorgeous freshly shed eastern timber rattler.

The bear and rattler were reminders of the purpose of our odyssey. We were — in a symbolic sense, and Steve Moore and his staff are in a real sense — reacquainting the native brookies with their fellow native bears and timber rattlers in habitat they once dominated. Moore said there are records of 18-inch brook trout at Elkmont at the turn of the 20th century. He said historic range for brookies in the park reached all the way down to 1,600 feet on north facing slopes and 2,000 feet on south facing slopes.

Moore said reestablishing brookies in mid-elevation streams in the Smokies is imperative to their survival.

“We have acid rain at the higher elevations and introduced rainbows and browns at mid and low elevations. The only place we have to protect this species is in mid-elevation streams above barriers that prevent rainbows and browns from encroaching.”

“Without a doubt, acid deposition is the greatest threat to the fisheries resource in the Smokies. If things don’t change, in the next 15 years we will be looking at a ph of 6 or lower in all streams above 3,500 in the park” Moore said.