An Important Cause

It is no new news that the Eastern Brook Trout population are not in the healthiest condition. But some places are far more at risk for entirely loosing their native fish populations. Take, for example, Rhode Islands Wood River. The Natives there have been put under a lot of 'white bucket angler' pressure and are being stocked over with trout that aren't capable of surviving long in the river. Even the local TU chapter is unwilling to give up their big fish catching opportunity to save a dwindling population, the exact opposite of what TU is supposed to do. This frankly makes me extraordinarily angry, because I see it around here to. For several years I have been trying to get the DEEP to either convert my home water to a Wild Trout Management Area or just stop stocking it. They've given some bad excuses. "It doesn't hold wild trout" (yes it frickin does!) or "it is necessary to keep pressure off of the stocked salmon parr" (they are all but decimated by the numbers of stocked trout too large and stupid to actually survive off of the other aquatic foods). I have had no success. But my home water is a far less pressing matter, for it's wild trout population is (for now) stable. Other streams are different. If you want to see a beautiful species killed off then go ahead and keep on the way you are going. If not try to change something. You might want to join TU (although not the Narraganset Chapter mentioned above) or start out by looking here: protectribrooktrout.org