New York aims to save Adirondack brook trout with pioneering management plan

By Zachary Matson 

State fisheries managers are developing a new approach to manage the special lake-dwelling brook trout that populate hundreds of Adirondack water bodies and are in some peril.

The emerging strategy will continue to shift focus to maintaining and establishing naturally-reproducing fish populations, while also providing anglers a mix of fishing opportunities.

A new management plan, which officials said will be released for public comment this year, may also be followed by new brook trout regulations, including expanded prohibitions on the use of baitfish in most brook trout waters. 

Steve Hurst, chief of the bureau of fisheries at the Department of Environmental Conservation, during a presentation in Warrensburg in April emphasized the rarity of New York’s ponded brook trout populations. Maine is the only other state in the region that sustains brook trout that spend their lifetimes in lake and pond ecosystems. 

“It’s damn important, so we need a good plan to make sure we take care of it,” Hurst said. 

Hurst outlined the threat posed to brook trout ponds by “incompatible and detrimental” perch, bass, walleye, smelt and other fish that proliferate around the region. Some are introduced as baitfish, which currently is prohibited in over 1,000 ponds through a hodgepodge of special restrictions.

Use of baitfish is allowed across the park, outside the numerous special restrictions. The fisheries managers want to flip that, prohibiting baitfish parkwide while allowing such fishing on a few larger lakes.

Baitfish would be prohibited on all lakes and ponds less than 50 acres, while allowed on around 140 larger lakes that are stocked with other species, serve as popular ice fishing spots and are close to major roads. The baitfish prohibition would undergo a formal regulatory process if pursued by DEC. 

The new management plan once final will replace a 1979 brook trout plan that has shaped the agency’s approach for nearly 45 years.

DEC in 2020 released a new trout stream management plan and had proposed limiting the number of brook trout anglers could take on a trip. In response to blowback, the state tabled any changes to fishing regulations in brook trout ponds and prioritized work on a new management plan specific to those populations.

Stakeholder involvement

Hundreds of anglers turned out at presentations the fisheries staff made in Old Forge and Warrensburg and online. 

Anglers appeared largely supportive of proposals but called for more work to “reclaim” ponds by killing off unwanted fish species that harm trout populations. 

The state hopes to enlist some of those anglers in a new citizen science effort to assess the fisheries of numerous lakes that could sustain brook trout but haven’t been surveyed by state biologists in decades.

The fisheries staff is seeking around 20 volunteers to work on a new team that will assign anglers to determine whether or not brook trout are present in remote waterbodies and collect water samples. 

“These [anglers] are very interested in the data and science,” said Jackie Lendrum, director of the DEC division of fish and wildlife. “It’s not about trophy fish, it’s about healthy ecosystems. If we aren’t careful, we will lose it.” 

Protecting native strains

The new plan will also focus on spreading genetic diversity throughout the park and girding the brook trout population against the threats of climate change, which scientists say will squeeze cold-water fish habitat by warming surface waters and depleting oxygen in deeper waters. 

Jim Daley, head of the DEC’s fish hatchery program, said the department plans to raise more native brook trout strains for stocking in ponds where they hope to restore trout populations.

The department also wants to establish its own stock of the brook trout species suited to hatchery conditions and widely used in the state’s stocking program. The state now relies on a private hatchery for about 350,000 trout eggs per year. That’s too many eggs in one hatchery, according to officials.

Genetic analysis in recent years has demonstrated the complexity of brook trout strains in the Adirondacks, with some strains in peril while others demonstrating more diversity than previously understood. The new plan calls for continuing to study brook trout genetics, including ongoing research into what strains will be most resilient in the face of climate change. 

“So, we are not spreading out the same strain of fish all over the Adirondacks, we would like to retain more of that diversity,” Daley said. 

The future of fishing

The state has identified 398 publicly accessible brook trout ponds in the Adirondacks: 84 sustain wild populations, 51 are stocked with heritage strains, 250 are stocked with a hatchery strain. Also, in 13 fisheries, managers have put stocking on hold to examine whether they can sustain themselves.

The new plan will continue the brook trout season from April 1 to Oct. 15 and retain a rule allowing anglers to keep up to five brook trout of any size.

Some anglers at the Warrensburg meeting urged less stocking in remote backcountry ponds, so that fish already there would face less competition and more likely reach a larger size. Others asked if the state could increase the numbers of lakes reclaimed each year, but DEC staff said they are limited by time and resources to maybe one reclamation a year.

Ponds are reclaimed by killing off the current fish population before restoring them with brook trout that will hopefully establish a self-sustaining community free of other harmful species. 

Frank Shaw has fished for Adirondack brook trout for around 30 years, visiting his 100th trout pond last year. He said he has attempted to adopt an angling style less stressful to the fish, using a fly rod on lakes and releasing most everything he catches. 

“I like the direction they are headed in, it’s a precious resource,” said Shaw, who lives in Chestertown. “Brook trout ponds are the Adirondacks. It’s part of the fabric of our region and goes back to the last ice age.”

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story lists the start of trout season as March 1. We’ve updated with the correct date of April 1.