Conservation writer Williams focuses on brook trout

One of the nation’s most respected conservation writers, Ted Williams has long gone above and beyond the call of duty in bringing attention to our environmental challenges.

Eastern brook trout have been among his subjects a number of times over the years, and are the focus of a new piece in the Nature Conservancy’s Cool Green Science Blog.

In “Recovery: Rehoming Brook Trout, the Dweller of Springs,” Williams take readers on a virtual tour of some of the areas in the East where brook trout have faced difficulties ranging from habitat loss to competition from non-native rainbow and brown trout.

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Conservation writer Ted Williams.

While there is sad and sobering news about streams where native brookies have been lost, Williams also shares stories of hope and recovery, a number of which rely, at least in part, on Trout Unlimited efforts.

In the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TU volunteers have played a huge role in working with the National Park Service to restore brook trout waters where non-native rainbow trout were pushing out the natives.

In Massachusetts and elsewhere along the Northeast coast, TU volunteers are working alongside the Sea Run Brook Trout Coalition and others to save and restore dwindling habitat for sea run -- or “salter” -- brook trout.

Also in the Northeast, work is being done to repair some of the man-made damage to brook trout streams that came in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene. After the storm, well-intentioned workers thought they were helping things by bulldozing streams, widening and straightening channels, and wiping banks clean of riparian vegetation. The opposite was true, but progress is being made to undo some of the damage and establish better approaches to future floods.

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New York's Johns Brook was among the streams in the Northeast that were damaged after Tropical Storm Irene by workers who thought they were doing the right thing to address flooding.

Work to reconnect fragmented brook trout habitat, such as impassable culvert replacement projects being tackled by TU and other organizations, is also covered.

So are efforts to treat acid-impacted streams in Appalachia, which have helped bring native brook trout back to streams that were barren not to very long ago.

These efforts are making a difference in protecting a fish that is an important indicator species, an iconic symbol of the East's coldest, cleanest water, and a creature that by its very existence deserves protection.