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An 1898 colour plate of the American brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis.

Field Guide · Animal

Southern Appalachian Brook Trout

The region's only native trout, now largely confined to the coldest headwaters.

The American brook trout as illustrated in 1898. New York Public Library Digital Collections.

Plate 192. The Speckled Trout.: a historical illustration of The Speckled Trout. Salvelinus fontinalus [sic] (Mitch.), Gill & Jordan.
Plate 192. The Speckled Trout.NOAA Historic Fisheries collection "Natural History of Useful Aquatic Animals" (i.e. G. Brown Goode et al., The Fisheries and Fishery Industries of the United States, Section I, plates; attribution from the collection name, not stated on the record), Plate 192. c. 1884.Labelled The Speckled Trout. Salvelinus fontinalus [sic] (Mitch.), Gill & Jordan, now Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill, 1814).Public domain, NOAA Central Library, NOAA Digital Library (file pl23_figb0457.jpg). Record
Scientific name
Salvelinus fontinalis
Documented in
Black Mountains (one source), Great Balsam Mountains (one source), Little River (one source), Tellico River (one source), The Georgia Blue Ridge (one source), Unicoi Mountains (one source)
Family
Salmonidae; a char (genus Salvelinus), not a true trout
Native range here
Cold, clean headwater streams across the Southern Appalachians
Distinctive
The southern populations are genetically distinct from northern brook trout
Threats
Habitat loss from logging and sedimentation, warming water, competition from introduced rainbow and brown trout
Status
Persists in a fraction of its historic range; subject of ongoing restoration by state and federal agencies

At a glance

The brook trout is the only salmonid native to the Southern Appalachians. The rainbow trout found in most of the region’s larger streams was introduced from the Pacific coast, and the brown trout from Europe; both arrived around the turn of the twentieth century and both outcompete the native fish in the lower, warmer reaches of a watershed.

The southern strain

Brook trout in the Southern Appalachians have been isolated from northern populations long enough to be genetically distinct. Early twentieth-century stocking introduced northern hatchery fish into many southern streams, and sorting native from stocked lineages is now part of the restoration work.

Where to find them

Native fish survive mostly in small, steep, cold streams above natural barriers such as waterfalls, which keep introduced trout out. Great Smoky Mountains National Park, the Nantahala and Cherokee national forests, and the Cohutta Wilderness all hold restoration or native-only waters, and the states of North Carolina, Tennessee, and Georgia manage others.

Sources and further reading

  1. FishNational Park Service, Great Smoky Mountains National Park
  2. Eastern Brook Trout Joint VentureEastern Brook Trout Joint Venture

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