Back The Brookie!

Teh Wind Knot was catching up on some web surfing and was checking out the TU Brook Trout Restoration page (formerly the grass roots Back the Brookie program before it was nationalized). One of the things that has been done as part of the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture is a watershed by watershed study of former brook trout water to see where the little fellas live now. The results are pretty sobering.



Green means that 90-100% of historical habitat is occupied by reproducing brook trout. Yellow is 50-90%; Red is 1-50%; Pink means that they are there, but there aren't good numbers on population; and Grey means that they are gone. Kaput.

It is a dire picture.

The reasons for the demise of brook trout are many and what to do about it is a complicated question. However, we should care about this, since the brook trout can be thought of as the canary in the coal mine for air and water quality. There are a lot of folks who live downstream of these degraded watersheds. If we can help the brook trout, we can help the peoples as well.