I visited the White Mountain Nation Forest in New Hampshire and Maine to meet with fisheries biologist Mark Proudt to discuss brook trout habitat improvement projects that he has helped implement.
The White Mountains are a fascinating area because they are very nutrient poor free-stone mountain streams. Thus without good habitat (i.e. deep pools), the trout are small and few and far between. So in order to increase trout numbers and size, Mark and others are improving culverts to make fish populations more connected, and placing a great number of downed tree trunks in streams to create deeper pools and improve the productivity of the stream.
Downed trees in streams catch leaves, silt, sand, mud, which then attracts bugs. Which then attracts, you guessed it, fish!
Someone out there might be wondering why people have to do this. Well, as forests were logged over the past 150 years, few mature trees were left to drop large limbs and entire trunks into and across streams. Young forests don't have very much dead wood so-to-speak. If the trees are young, few snags are found in area streams. Thus until the forest ages and can do this on its own, humans have to help a bit.
In this photo, you can see all the leaves and other material that are accumulating in the snag. As physical complexity of the snag increases, so too does the bio-complexity (not just fish, many many other organisms as well).
The White Mountains are important for brook trout because as the globe warms, these high elevation, COLD streams may act as a refuge for future trout populations.
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