Ad Crable is a Bay Journal staff writer based in Pennsylvania. Contact him at 717-341-7270 or acrable@bayjournal.com.
By Ad Grable / Bay Journal
A 19-year stream project that began in the nooks and crannies of mountain ravines in West Virginia has transformed the Potomac River’s headwaters into one of the most robust wild brook trout fisheries south of Maine and the Adirondacks.
The restoration work, spearheaded by the nonprofit Trout Unlimited, is all the more inspirational because it comes at a time of considerable effort to save brook trout, the only trout native to the East Coast. These exquisitely beautiful creatures need clear, cool water to survive.
Despite climate change and loss of habitat, the Potomac Headwaters Home Rivers Initiative has become a beacon of hope.
This is the largest square mileage of genetically interconnected brook trout
“The data shows that where we restore these streams, they persist, even in the face of climate change,” said Dustin Wichterman, who has been overseeing Trout Unlimited’s work on the project for the last decade.
“Climate change is concerning, but we’re working in the best of the best [of brook trout habitat].”
That best includes the trout themselves. In many parts of the East, even wild brook trout stem from a widely used Vermont stocking strain. However, native brook trout in the isolated Potomac headwaters have genetics that are highly specific to that location.
“To know your 15-inch fish is legit and is in the same group that has been here for 20,000 years is pretty cool,” Wichterman said
Trout Unlimited began focusing on the eastern panhandle of West Virginia in 2005. It targeted a region of more than 1,000 streams with historic brook trout populations and springs that help keep water cold.
But there was severe habitat degradation
Clear-cutting for the past timber industry left an impact, and there were more recent problems, too, such as erosion and nutrient pollution from agricultural runoff. A series of devastating floods had sheared away streambank trees.
In an effort to protect their land from further damage, farmers and other landowners bulldozed rock berms along the streams, making them shallow and allowing the unbuffered, over-widened water to be heated by the sun.
The flooding and regrading of streams took away pools, natural meandering flow, boulders, and other habitats. “Some were ditch lines,” Wichterman said, disconnecting the streams with their floodplains.
The brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) is a freshwater fish species in the char genus Salvelinus of the salmon family Salmonidae. It is native to Eastern North America, the United States, and Canada. The illustration was provided courtesy of Thom Glace.
To begin with, Trout Unlimited examined satellite and LiDAR remote sensing images to determine where streams had lost sheltering trees and suffered from erosion. They then drove around and looked for defects.
Crews then scaled steep forest ravines, often in national forests, to work on sometimes narrow streams that fish could jump across them. They reestablished vegetated buffers and felled trees, allowing them to lie in the water to create habitat. They replaced culverts where erosion prevented fish from reaching spawning areas. They also replaced low-water bridges where debris could collect and block streams.
Next, the crews moved downstream to farmland and other private properties. Work shifted to major Potomac tributaries, such as the North Fork and South Branch
Wichterman met some resistance when he first proposed working on private properties. But landowners fondly remembered when they and their families caught colorful brook trout in the streams passing through their land.
“A lot of these folks have known what the fishery was like,” Wichterman said. “They tell me the stories. I had one lady in her 70s say, ‘I just want to see green trees growing along the stream again.’ There was a lot of nostalgia.”
Combatting erosion was one of the biggest incentives for wary landowners to allow restoration work
“It took us close to 10 years to get a stronghold and for people to recognize that we were there,” Wichterman said. “Now people are knocking on our doors.”
In the more accessible bottomlands, the crews could use bulldozers to move things around in the stream to improve habitat. Livestock was also fenced out of the water and provided with troughs and designated stream crossings. Once-trampled stream banks grew up with new trees and native plants that captured runoff and shaded the water.
More than 400 farms in five counties have adopted best management practices. More than 100 miles of streams have been restored. Some 1.5 million feet of fence have been strung to keep livestock from trampling banks and defecating in the water. Approximately 2,000 acres of streamside land have become planted buffers.
Streams that were mostly dead now teem with three age classes of brook trout up to 15-inches long — trophy-size for the species. Brookie numbers have quadrupled in some areas.
Most importantly, hundreds of small far-flung streams have been connected with main branches so that trout can move freely between them to feed, spawn, and access colder water during summer.
At the same time, the project helps local economies by using area contractors, boosting recreation, and improving farming
Funding for the program has grown from $300,000 a year to more than $6 million annually. About half has come from federal sources and half from Trout Unlimited. Federal partners include the U.S. Forest Service, the National Resources Conservation Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, state agencies, private foundations, and other sources augment funding.
Those who work with Wichterman can’t imagine anyone else running the show at the ground level.
The 39-year-old fisheries biologist grew up in the mountains of West Virginia and chased trout as a kid. Even then, he noted the damage being done to native trout waters.
Wichterman hit the ground running. He drummed up money. He worked tenaciously with landowners, using his down-to-earth style to open doors. Sometimes, he’d get permission to do work after more than a year of resistance.
“They see his passion for it in his conversations, and he’s able to relate well in terms that they understand,” said Ryan Cooper, who manages the Potomac Headwaters initiative at Trout Unlimited.
For Wichterman, there’s something special about wild brook trout and the waters where they swim
“They represent the purest form of joy and the purest environments I know,” he said. “Where they live brings me more happiness than anywhere I’ve ever been.”
Ultimately, Wichterman said, his work “is doing something good for the next generation.”
He’s already seeing proof. At age 2, his daughter Brooklynn caught her first brookie on a fly rod and dry fly in one of the restored stored streams.
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