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Chesapeake Progress

Brook Trout

Recent progress increase.
Outlook offCourse.

Restore and sustain naturally reproducing brook trout populations in Chesapeake Bay headwater streams, with an eight percent increase in occupied habitat by 2025.

Progress

Recent Progress: Increase

According to an assessment completed in 2016 by the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV), wild, or naturally reproducing, brook trout occupy 33,212 square kilometers of habitat in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. Of this area, 19,401 square kilometers are occupied by allopatric populations (wild brook trout only), while 13,811 square kilometers are shared with non-native salmonids, such as brown and rainbow trout.

Between the 2016 baseline and 2024, there was a 0.5% net increase in habitat occupied by naturally reproducing brook trout, bringing the total to 33,378 square kilometers.

Outlook: Off Course

The Brook Trout Outcome is off course. To achieve an 8% increase in occupied habitat by 2025, the total area of streams occupied by naturally reproducing brook trout would need to reach 35,869 square kilometers. Since 2016, brook trout-occupied habitat has increased an average of 21 square kilometers per year, which falls short of the annual restoration target of 295 square kilometers needed to achieve the outcome.

The data that informs progress toward the Brook Trout Outcome were published in 2024 by the Brook Trout Action Team in a project report titled “Facilitating Brook Trout Outcome Attainability through Coordination with CBP Jurisdictions and Partners (PDF).” This project tracked habitat improvement projects implemented between 2016 and 2022, and documented gains and losses in brook trout occupancy within the Chesapeake Bay watershed between 2016 and 2024. Changes in brook trout occupancy were determined by the results of the EBTJV Salmonid Assessments conducted during those years, measured in square kilometers and mapped at the catchment scale. The report compiled data on over 5,419 habitat improvement projects and documented a 0.5% net increase in brook trout occupancy, with occupied habitat increasing by 1,539 square kilometers (excluding any loss in occupied habitat). Of these projects, only 94, or 1.7%, occurred in catchments where brook trout were known to be present.

Brook trout are an essential part of headwater stream environments and a valuable recreational resource. Chesapeake Bay Program partners have made a concerted effort to protect and enhance brook trout habitat, and the possibility of restoring brook trout to local streams has motivated private landowners to reduce pollution and conserve habitat on their properties. However, significant obstacles remain before we can succeed in achieving the Brook Trout Outcome.

In marginal habitats, brook trout populations continue to decline due to habitat loss, competition from non-native species and changes in land use and environmental conditions. The resources available to mitigate these impacts are insufficient to sustain and restore brook trout populations at the scale that is necessary to achieve our goal. Intervention and data support are needed to increase the implementation and monitoring of conservation and restoration activities.

Learn About Factors Influencing Progress

Management Strategy

To achieve the Brook Trout Outcome, participating partners have committed to:

  • Protecting highly functional wild brook trout patches from detrimental changes in land and water use practices through land conservation.  
  • Connecting habitats that have a high likelihood of sustaining stable wild brook trout populations.  
  • Restoring brook trout habitats that have been impacted by poor land and water use practices (e.g., livestock access to streams, polluted runoff, acid mine drainage).  
  • Enhancing or restoring natural hydrologic regimes (e.g., road decommissioning, increasing forest cover, and improving soil health).  
  • Preventing and mitigating the spread of nonnative species into allopatric brook trout patches.  
  • Reintroducing wild brook trout into extirpated catchments or where an increase in genetic fitness of the population is needed and supported by science.  
  • Informing state and local decision-makers of the benefits restored brook trout habitat can provide and the location of priority areas for brook trout conservation.  
  • Refining decision support tools (e.g., the Fish Passage Prioritization Tool or the Riparian Restoration to Promote Climate Change Resilience Tool) and applying them to the local conservation of brook trout habitat.

The Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture’s assessment framework (PDF) will be used to track progress toward this outcome. Each year, jurisdictions will use a standardized tool to report changes in habitat, measured in square kilometers, occupied by wild brook trout—either gained through conservation efforts or lost due to habitat decline. Every five years, these annual reports will be combined with monitoring data to assess overall progress and provide recommendations for adaptive management.

As part of the Chesapeake Bay Program’s partnership-wide implementation of adaptive management, progress toward this outcome was reviewed and discussed by the Management Board in December 2023.  

Download Management Strategy (.pdf)

Logic & Action Plan

Chesapeake Bay Program partners have committed to taking specific actions to achieve the approaches identified in the management strategy above.

Ongoing Actions

  • Maryland Department of Natural Resources conducts regular censuses of brook trout populations, prioritizes restoration in western Maryland, and partners with county DOTs to improve aquatic organism passage (AOP) and resiliency.
  • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation focuses on fish passage and riparian habitat improvement projects in the Chemung and Susquehanna watersheds and conducts annual trout stream surveys.
  • Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission monitors brook trout populations and identifies new populations through extensive stream sampling.
  • Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources monitors brook trout distribution, maintains a Coldwater Stream Database, and partners with Trout Unlimited for restoration efforts.
  • West Virginia Division of Natural Resources assesses brook trout populations with partners, maintains a Stream Fish Database, and implements a breeding and reintroduction program.
  • Federal agencies support restoration efforts and conduct research on factors affecting brook trout populations, including habitat stressors, environmental changes, and competition from invasive species.  
  • Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture funds management projects, updates distribution maps, and facilitates collab
  • oration among state and federal agencies and NGOs.

Recently Completed

2025

2024

2022

  • Hargrove et al. published “Landscape and stocking effects on population genetics of Tennessee Brook Trout.” The study revealed significant variation in genetic diversity and hatchery introgression, with weak correlations to landscape characteristics, emphasizing the importance of genetic data for informed conservation management amidst complex historical influences and challenges in defining population drainages.

Learn About Logic & Action Plan

Participating Partners

The Vital Habitats Goal Implementation Team leads the effort to achieve this outcome. It works in partnership with the Healthy Watersheds Goal Implementation Team.

Participating partners include:

  • Maryland Department of Natural Resources (State of Maryland)
  • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (State of New York)
  • Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (Commonwealth of Pennsylvania)
  • Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (Commonwealth of Virginia)
  • West Virginia Division of Natural Resources (State of West Virginia)
  • National Park Service
  • U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
  • U.S. Geological Survey
  • Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture
  • Trout Unlimited