EBTJV

Predicting Brook Trout Occurrence in Stream Reaches throughout their Native Range in the Eastern United States: The Brook Trout Salvelinus fontinalis is an important species of conservation concern in the eastern USA. We developed a model to predict Brook Trout population status within individual stream reaches throughout the species’ native range in the eastern USA. We utilized hierarchical logistic regression with Bayesian estimation to predict Brook Trout occurrence probability, and we allowed slopes and intercepts to vary among ecological drainage units (EDUs). Model performance was similar for 7,327 training samples and 1,832 validation samples based on the area under the receiver operating curve (»0.78) and Cohen’s kappa statistic (0.44). Predicted water temperature had a strong negative effect on Brook Trout occurrence probability at the stream reach scale and was also negatively associated with the EDU average probability of Brook Trout occurrence (i.e., EDU-specific intercepts). The effect of soil permeability was positive but decreased as EDU mean soil permeability increased. Brook Trout were less likely to occur in stream reaches surrounded by agricultural or developed land cover, and an interaction suggested that agricultural land cover also resulted in an increased sensitivity to water temperature. Our model provides a further understanding of how Brook Trout are shaped by habitat characteristics in the region and yields maps of stream-reach-scale predictions, which together can be used to support ongoing conservation and management efforts. These decision support tools can be used to identify the extent of potentially suitable habitat, estimate historic habitat losses, and prioritize conservation efforts by selecting suitable stream reaches for a given action. Future work could extend the model to account for additional landscape or habitat characteristics, include biotic interactions, or estimate potential Brook Trout responses to climate and land use changes.
Located in Science and Data / Brook Trout Related Publications
EBTJV Salmonid Catchment Assessment and Habitat Patch Layers: Extending, standardizing, and automating the salmonid status assessment is a fundamental goal of the EBTJV. This document provides a step-by-step description of these procedures, as well as providing examples for their applications.
Located in Science and Data / EBTJV Reports
Decision Support Tools for Brook Trout Conservation: The EBTJV website now houses links to five new decision support tools that can assist natural resource managers with Brook Trout conservation efforts.
Located in News & Events / News Inbox
EBTJV Steering Committee Meeting, September 29, 2015: This documents contains the agenda items discussed during the EBTJV's Steering Committee Meeting held September 29, 2015.
Located in About EBTJV / … / EBTJV Partnership Meetings / EBTJV Meeting September 28-30, 2015
EBTJV September 28-30, 2015 Meeting Agenda: This documents contains the meeting agenda items.
Located in About EBTJV / … / EBTJV Partnership Meetings / EBTJV Meeting September 28-30, 2015
Fish Passage Barrier Removal Fact Sheet Template - Guidance Document: A guidance document to accompany use of the educational template on the importance of fish passage barrier removal developed by SARP, EBTJV and ACFHP.
Located in Library
Fish Passage Barrier Removal Fact Sheet Template - North Carolina Edition: An educational template on the importance of fish passage barrier removal for use by SARP, EBTJV, ACFHP and partners in North Carolina and which can be tailored and customized for use in other states. In support of fish passage education and outreach, SARP, the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV), and the Atlantic Coastal Fish Habitat Partnership (ACFHP) have developed an informational template on fish passage barrier removal. The demonstration version includes a featured project and resources for North Carolina. The template was created for conservation groups that have strong local level community connections to citizens, property owners, and smaller stream systems where many potential barriers exist. It can be used to raise awareness of impacts these barriers have on fish and other aquatics, and to help enlist the assistance of landowners, recreationalists, and citizen scientists in identifying and providing information about barriers that may not yet be documented. User groups have the ability to personalize portions of the template according to their specific target audiences and the template can be used as an outreach tool to highlight key issues and projects. Complete with a section where specific calls to action can be identified to help empower stakeholders to take action and report potential barriers, which will help the databases of the Southeast Aquatic Connectivity Assessment Program (SEACAP) and other programs grow and remain up to date and relevant.
Located in Library
Chesapeake Bay Brook Trout Management Strategy (6-24-15): This document describes the management strategy for achieving the Brook Trout outcome contained in the 2014 Chesapeake Bay Watershed Agreement.
Located in Science and Data / Chesapeake Bay Program
Aaron Run (MD) - Mitigating Acid Mine Drainage Improves pH Levels in Run: Waterbody Improved: water flowing through abandoned coal mines contributed acid mine drainage (AMD) to Maryland’s Aaron Run, causing the stream’s pH level to fail to meet the state’s water quality standard for pH. As a result, the Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) added Aaron Run to Maryland’s 2004 Clean Water Act (CWA) section 303(d) list of impaired waters for low pH. Watershed partners implemented numerous AMD mitigation projects, and pH levels increased. Aaron Run now meets the state water quality standard for pH and supports a population of brook trout. As a result, MDE has proposed removing Aaron Run from the state’s list of impaired waters for pH impairment in 2014.
Located in News & Events / News Inbox
East Fork Greenbrier River/Poca Run Large Woody Material Project, Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, Monitoring Report - 2015: The East Fork Greenbrier River/Poca Run Large Woody Material (LWM) project was designed to treat a total of 16 stream sites with LWM structures distributed along ¾ miles of stream and floodplain areas on the Monongahela National Forest.
Located in News & Events / News Inbox

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