The brook trout that is native to the Blue Ridge Mountains in South Carolina and the mountains of other southern states is genetically different from its northern cousins. Fisheries biologists call it a strain. While some old-timers may claim they can tell this southern Appalachian brook trout from northern strains, most fishermen would have difficulty making that distinction. However, the southern Appalachian brook trout is readily identifiable using protein electrophoresis and other genetic tests.
The brook trout, or brookie (or “spec”) as it is lovingly called by its advocates, is one of the most beautiful members of the trout and salmon family. Colors on individual fish vary depending on season of the year, whether it is male or female, on the nature of the stream bottom, diet, its genetic makeup, and probably other factors. The southern Appalachian brookie is thought by many to be more brilliantly colored than its northern cousins.
Brilliant red spots, surrounded by light blue halos, are scattered over their olive flanks, which gave rise to the name “specs”, as they are known by many mountain trout fishermen. The pectoral, pelvic, and anal fins of males during the fall spawning season are a deep reddish-orange with white and black margins along their front edge, and their dark backs are marked with pale yellow spots and wormlike vermiculations. Their bellies are a brilliant orange. The females are similarly marked but their colors are somewhat less vivid.
Another King Creek brookie.
The southern Appalachian brook trout has occupied the ancient valleys and hollows of the Blue Ridge Mountains for millennia. The southern Appalachian brookie is probably better suited than its northern counterparts to survive the natural environmental extremes of the region including normal summer temperatures. However, unless the threat of global warming is reversed, the southern Appalachian brook trout may be lost from the mountains that have so long been its home.
The brookie, however, was in decline even before the current concerns associated with global warming. Dan Rankin, Fisheries Biologist with the South Carolina DNR, explains, “Beginning in the late 1800s the forests of the southern Appalachian Mountains were heavily cutover to supply the growing nation’s insatiable appetite for timber. Removal of forest cover caused water temperatures to rise beyond the tolerance level of the temperature-sensitive brook trout. Intense wildfires in the woody debris left after logging caused erosion and heavy sedimentation of mountain streams. In those early days of mechanized logging in the mountains, railroads and roads often followed the stream courses and, in many cases, especially in steep “hollers”, the stream channel itself was used as the road bed. The habitat of the brookie was severely damaged by this type of exploitive logging and brook trout populations declined dramatically.”
The mountain forests gradually grew back and now support, in many cases, fine stands of hardwood and conifer trees. The brook trout would have come back too, except for the fact that rainbow trout from the western United States and brown trout from Europe were stocked in the brook trout’s habitat. These non-native fish were available for stocking by the early 1900s, thanks to the efforts of early fish culturists in the United States. The non-natives grew faster and larger than the brook trout and gradually dominated streams where brookies once thrived. Only in tiny headwater streams, often above impassable barriers such as waterfalls and cascades, was the brookie able to survive.
Now there is a major partnership called the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture, consisting of state and federal agencies, conservation/environmental groups, universities, and private entities, whose goal is to restore brook trout populations throughout their native range. In South Carolina, restoration efforts are led by the Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Forest Service fisheries biologists, but other partners are making substantial and essential contributions also. The South Carolina Council of Trout Unlimited has provided much needed funds for the restoration efforts, and supplied volunteers to help with stream access, electrofishing, and stream stocking. Furthermore, they have led efforts to publicize restoration successes. The South Carolina Wildlife Federation also helped with funding the projects. Aquatic ecologists with Clemson University periodically assess effects of the restoration efforts on stream life.
Restoration of southern Appalachian brook trout is a difficult job. Streams selected for restoration are small, remote headwater streams. They are usually choked with a tangle of vegetation dominated by rhododendron, mountain laurel, and doghobble that makes them difficult to reach, much less fish. Non-native brown and rainbow trout must be completely removed. With electrofishing, non-native trout can be captured alive and placed in other streams. After non-natives are removed, southern Appalachian brookies are collected from other streams where they naturally occur and transferred to the stream being restored. The new population is then monitored periodically to determine its status and whether the introduced brookies are reproducing.
Because it is essential that brown and rainbow trout be prevented from returning to the stretch of stream being restored to brookies, there must be an impassable barrier (i.e., a waterfall) to prevent upstream migration of the non-native species.
King Creek Falls - the impassable barrier.
Although the restoration process is laborious, time-consuming, and expensive, it is necessary if the native southern Appalachian strain of brook trout is to be restored. “The southern Appalachian brook trout is extremely difficult to raise in hatcheries,” Rankin says. “If we are going to have southern Appalachian brookies in South Carolina streams, we will have to capture the native fish from streams that have them and transfer them to streams selected for restoration.”
It is primarily this unique southern Appalachian strain of brook trout that the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture is striving to restore in South Carolina, although wild “mixed” strains of brookies are encouraged in some streams where they already occur. Mixed strain brookies are hybrids that resulted when northern brook trout were stocked in streams that contained the native strain. All trout species and strains are important, but the southern Appalachian brookie is a living symbol of our mountain heritage and deserves special consideration for restoration.
Although the habitat abuses of the first half of the 20th century seldom occur today, other threats have arisen in recent decades. Along with global warming, the brookie now has to deal with air pollution, habitat fragmentation (i.e., development), and an exotic insect – the hemlock wooly adelgid, an aphid-like insect native to Japan – which is killing off the large hemlocks that provide much of the shading to cool mountain streams. These are now the most dominant threats to the brook trout’s continued existence in South Carolina. Nevertheless, progress is being made in restoring the brookie in our state.
During monitoring operations the past two years on streams in the Sumter National Forest in Oconee County where southern Appalachian brookies were recently stocked, reproduction has been documented, signaling at the very least early success for the program. However, more stockings may be needed to build up the populations before they reach a fishable level. At this time, two streams in the Andrew Pickens Ranger District of the Sumter National Forest have been restored to southern Appalachian brookies. Another stream in the Forest has been stocked with wild “mixed-strain” brookies, as has a stream in Table Rock State Park. Soon other headwater streams, including some in the state-owned Jocassee Gorges, will be targeted for restoration to brook trout.
The South Carolina partnership of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture believes that the brook trout, and especially the southern Appalachian brookie, is worth saving. The southern Appalachian brook trout is a living symbol of our region’s heritage and our children and grandchildren should have the opportunity to enjoy them. Even if you never fish for them, it should give you pride to know that this beautiful little fish is alive and doing well in the mountains that have been their home for millennia.