Trout study of Moosehead region to be presented on Jan. 10

The Natural Resource Education Center in Greenville is sponsoring an evening program to present the results from a recent Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife study of wild brook trout populations in the large lake systems of the Moosehead region.

The program will be held at the Penobscot County Conservation Association clubhouse in Brewer on Thursday, Jan. 10. The event begins at 7 p.m.

The Eastern Brook Trout Venture Group, a partnership among state and federal agencies, non-governmental organizations, and academic institutions, recently hailed Maine as the last stronghold for wild brook trout in the eastern United States.

The state’s large tracts of undeveloped land and a long history of protective management have helped preserve this special resource.

To date, much of the research on brook trout has been conducted on smaller trout ponds. But in the late 1950s, Roger Auclair, fisheries biologist for the Maine DIF&W, conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the brook trout spawning run at Socatean Stream on Moosehead Lake.

More recently, the DIF&W conducted population studies on Eagle Lake and Chamberlain Lake in the Allagash Wilderness Waterway.

These projects demonstrated that trout populations in large lakes are much different from those in trout ponds.

In 2006, the fisheries staff from the Moosehead Lake region developed a research project to gather more information regarding wild brook trout populations in large lake systems.

Funding and support for this project came from the Maine Outdoor Heritage Fund, the Allagash Wilderness Waterway, and Fly Fishing In Maine (an on-line community of anglers dedicated to promoting, protecting, and preserving Maine’s fisheries).

The project included intensively live trapping wild brook trout on Chamberlain Lake, Round Pond, and Telos Lake and implanting radio transmitters in a select number of adult fish. This allowed biologists to track these fish over the following year. Fisheries staff also conducted other fieldwork to evaluate angler use and harvest.

The Natural Resource Education Center is a non-profit organization dedicated to educating and informing people about the natural and cultural history of the Moosehead Lake Region.

No admission fee will be charged for the program but donations will be accepted.

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