Canoeing, kayaking, and whitewater rafting are popular outdoor activities on running water. Southern Appalachian rivers offer some of the most beautiful scenery and the most challenging rapids in the East, ranging from Class I to V+ rapids. A few notable and in some cases world-renowned rivers of the region include:

• Chatooga River of Georgia-South Carolina
• Ocoee River of Tennessee
• Nantahala and Green Rivers of North Carolina
• French Broad and Nolichucky Rivers of North Carolina-Tennessee

Nongovernmental organizations representing river-runners have become increasingly active about ensuring that water flows meet the needs and demands of whitewater recreationists. They have publicly and legally engaged the Tennessee Valley Authority, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and other entities like power companies that control flows to negotiate water allocation for the benefit of their constituents. Public river access is also actively promoted. American Whitewater provides detailed information on these issues from the recreational perspective and on specific whitewater rivers.

Fishing on rivers and streams is very popular. Effective, long-term management in river and stream fisheries must be pursued in an ecological context that incorporates complex relationships among the biota and the environment. The goal of modern science-based management is to provide a natural amenity to the angling public while insuring that the resources and their ecosystems are sustained.

Fishing in a natural setting can be relaxing, fun, and even profound, whether the efforts are successful or not. The popularity of this pastime forces natural resources managers to address fishers (people), fish, and their aquatic habitat.  These three areas can be manipulated by resource agency policies and initiatives:

1. Behavior of people can be modified via fishing regulations.
2. Fish populations may be introduced or enhanced through stocking programs.
3. Habitat can be maintained or altered to benefit fish.

Specific management practices depend on location, since habitat types and occurrence of particular species varies over the landscape:

• Coldwater fisheries occur at higher elevations in the southern Appalachians, and feature one native trout species (brook trout) and two introduced trout (rainbow trout and brown trout).
• Cool- and warm-water fisheries occur further downstream and include a more diverse group of game fishes.

One method of enhancing the opportunities for recreational fishing is through the stocking of fish:

• New lakes and ponds can be stocked with fish to establish a sport fish population.
• Depleted or threatened native populations may be replenished by stocking.
• New species can be introduced to create new fishing opportunities, although this option is controversial because of potential negative interactions between introduced and native species.

High demand for limited fish resources is often assuaged by stocking. In coldwater streams, the demand for trout fishing often cannot be met by native trout populations. For example, to buffer pressure on the trout resource and maintain the quality of trout fishing, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources rears trout to a catchable size (about 9 inches) at state hatcheries. These fish are then stocked in selected streams or impoundments to provide a "put and take" trout fishery to help meet the tremendous demand for trout fishing opportunities. Other states have similar programs.

Specific species, stocking rates (individuals/unit time), and stocking locations may be available in printed materials and at natural resource agency websites for the following states listed below.  For more information, click on the indivivdual state of interest:

• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Alabama

Habitat refers to the physical and chemical conditions in which an organism lives. The adaptations of a particular species reflect an evolutionary history in its native environment. Habitat quality is key to maintenance of healthy ecosystems, as well as quality of fishery resources.

Stream habitat management must be coordinated with land use management because activities on the land have impacts on streams and rivers. Water carries with it sediment and nutrients in a hydrologic cycle that drives the aquatic ecosystem. Streambanks, the vegetation growing along the stream in the riparian zone, and conditions in the entire drainage basin ultimately affect the quality of habitat for living things. An effective stream habitat management program treats the riparian zone and the stream as a single ecosystem (Orth and White 1993).

Stream Habitat

Stream fish abundance and distribution are determined by a number of ecosystem conditions that interact in complex ways. To simplify, the myriad of conditions can be classified in a model of stream fish habitat:

• Riparian trees and plants filter sediments and nutrients, shade the stream, stabilize banks, provide woody debris to the channel, and contribute energy in the form of leaf litter.
• Flow regime refers to the discharge of streamflow over time, which may be quite variable in the short term but often shows predictable patterns with the seasons. Stream organisms are adapted to the seasonal cycle of flooding and low flows.
• Water quality, such as temperature, pH, turbidity, dissolved oxygen, alkalinity, dissolved nutrients, and presence or concentration of contaminants in streamwater, can affect stream fish directly or through effects on food production.
• Energy to support organisms in streams may be from sources outside the aquatic system (allochthonous) or sources within the system (autochthonous).
• Physical structure refers to the characteristics of channel bed materials, water depth, current velocity, bank morphology, and cover such as large wood that all determine the suitability of the stream environment as living space.
• Biological interactions can also affect an organisms habitat selection and use, and its survival in a given habitat. Predation, competition for resources, and symbiotic relationships are examples. (Orth and White 1993)

Stream habitat management focuses on maintaining these ecological conditions within natural patterns of variation. Habitat protection means preventing human activities that would cause adverse habitat modifications. In practice, protection takes the form of preventing the causes of habitat loss. Best management practices in riparian zones are particularly important in protecting stream habitat from nonpoint source pollution and channel changes caused by watershed disturbance.

Habitat improvement may involve restoration of damaged habitat or, in the case of fisheries management, enhancement of existing habitat for sport fishes.

Improvement may be necessary to restore stream habitat after prior abuses, or simply to enhance the carrying capacity of the stream for fish.

Traditionally, trout habitat improvement has focused on engineered in-stream habitat structures. But managers are increasingly adding large woody debris for immediate habitat improvement and management of riparian zones with best management practices for long-term sustainable habitat improvement.

Stream restoration measures include:

• Adopting best management practices in riparian zones throughout the drainage basin to restore streamflow and water quality.
• Where streamflow discharge is artificially regulated by dams or diversions, flows are manipulated to benefit aquatic life; manipulation involves simulating natural seasonal flow patterns.
• Addition of large wood as structural cover.
• Where banks are eroding, streambanks can be stabilized by planting vegetation, installing revetments made of trees and shrubs, or placement of stone riprap. Locations of these streambank stabilization structures along the stream must be carefully planned to meet objectives.

Streambank Stabilization Projects
with Tree and Shrub Revetments

Revetments are structures made of large durable materials like trees, shrubs, logs, or stumps that are placed along a streambank to deflect current. The material is often anchored well into the streambank to provide additional stability. Locations of revetments along the stream must be carefully planned to meet objectives.

Streambank Stabilization Projects
with Riprap

Riprap refers to hard material, usually rocks, used to protect streambanks or other stream features. In the top part of the figure at left, riprap is associated with a log structure installed in the stream to provide cover as well as to protect the left streambank. The lower part of the figure shows typical riprap used to protect streambanks. Locations of riprap along the stream must be carefully planned to meet objectives.

Location of Stream Bank
Stabilization Projects

Location of streambank stabilization structures along the stream must be carefully planned to meet objectives. A thorough understanding of stream hydrology is required for planning because the powerful forces of flowing water can quickly undermine these structures and cause them to fail.

Streams that support populations of trout have traditionally been considered coldwater streams. The primary factor limiting trout distributions is water temperature. Stream temperatures in trout waters generally do not rise above 72 deg. F (22 deg. C), although populations may tolerate short periods up to 77 deg. F (25 deg. C). Temperature in turn is a function of geography, with temperatures decreasing with increasing latitude and elevation (Flebbe 1994). Temperature is further influenced by land use. Specifically, loss of forest cover near the stream raises temperature. Trout are near the southern edge of their range in the southeastern U.S., hence trout waters are restricted to higher elevations of the Appalachians. Other environmental factors are also important:

• Channel substrate-- Trout require coarse gravel and pebbles for successful spawning, and populations decline where silt deposits are heavy.
• Water quality-- Trout are sensitive to declines in water quality.
• Wood - Large wood is particularly important in providing fish sanctuary and habitat for invertebrates.
• Instream flow-- Low streamflows mean less available habitat to support populations.

Native Americans and early white settlers found the streams abounding with native brook trout. From around 1870 through the early 1900s, fish species were widely introduced to new areas to increase the selection of game fishes (Griffith 1993). This brought to the Appalachians the rainbow trout of western North America and the brown trout of Europe. Loss of stream habitat through the 20th century changed coldwater stream management.

Hatchery programs were widely established in an attempt to maintain high catch rates as habitat was shrinking. By the 1970s, impacts of stocked trout on wild populations began to be a concern. A gradual change in management began, and continues today; increased emphasis is placed on wild fish in a quality natural setting. Native species (brook trout) restoration and protection, adoption of specialized regulations, and protection and rehabilitation of habitat are areas of current emphasis in progressive management agencies (Griffith 1993).

The status of trout and trout habitat in the southern Appalachians, where trout are near the southern edge of their range, is a major concern. Many people want to fish for native brook trout, naturalized rainbow and brown trout, or stocked individuals of all three species. Others find the native brook trout to be a beautiful fish and want assurances that its continued existence is secure. Still others see trout as indicators of high water quality.

Three species of trout live in the southern Appalachians: the native brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis), the introduced rainbow trout (Oncorhyncbus mykiss), and the introduced brown trout (Salmo trutta). Originally, brook trout were distributed down the spine of the southern Appalachian mountains through western Virginia, North Carolina, and eastern Tennessee to northwestern South Carolina, and northeastern Georgia, which is the southern edge of the range of the species (MacCrimmon and Campbell 1969). Stocking programs have not significantly extended this range. Rainbow trout and brown trout were introduced to the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Attempts have been made to introduce other salmonids, but other than occasional reports of kokanee (Oncorhynchus nerka) and lake trout (Salvelinus namaycush) from certain reservoirs, none of these attempts appear to have succeeded.

In the Great Smoky Mountains and neighboring areas of Tennessee, introduced rainbow trout have been successful at lower elevations. Between the 1900s and the present, brook trout have been increasingly restricted to upper headwater reaches (King 1937, Kelly and others 1980, Bivens and others 1985, Larson and Moore 1985). Brook trout now occur at the highest elevations and rainbow and brown trout at lower elevations with up to several kilometers of sympatric coexistence between the allopatric sections (Bivens and others 1985, Larson and Moore 1985).

These patterns do not hold completely for the region [see trout distribution map] -- trout tend to be distributed along latitudinal and elevational gradients (Meisner 1990, Flebbe 1994). Brook trout generally live at higher elevations than rainbow or brown trout; however, proceeding north, the average elevation at which brook trout live declines more rapidly than that for the other two species (Flebbe 1994). In the northern portions of the area, around Shenandoah National Park, brown trout are quite rare, rainbow trout are only marginally successful, and brook trout are widely distributed and abundant (Lennon 1961, Mohn and Bugas 1980, Flebbe 1994). Sympatry (more than one species coexisting in a stream section) of trout species becomes less common to the north (Flebbe 1994). Allopatric (only one species in a stream section) brook trout, the native condition, remains most common and abundant in the southern Appalachian region as a whole (Flebbe 1994).

Stocking programs are largely run by the states and very few streams in the Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) area have never been stocked. Stocking of fingerlings and adult trout of all three species continues.

Recently, two putative strains of brook trout have been recognized in the southern Appalachians: a southern form and a northern form introduced through hatcheries and stocking (Stoneking and others 1981, McCracken and others 1993). The two forms can be distinguished with modern genetic methods. In at least some streams where northern brook trout were stocked on top of existing southern brook trout, hybridization between the two has been found (McCracken and others 1993). Current research efforts are aimed at determining geographic patterns in distribution of the northern, southern, and hybrid forms (Kriegler and others 1995, Strange and Habera 1995).  In Tennessee, northern brook trout appear to be more common in streams located near hatcheries (Strange and Habera 1995). However, stocking records have not proven to be reliable predictors of genetic status of brook trout in individual streams (Kriegler and others 1995).

Wild Trout Range Boundaries in the
Southern Appalachian Assessment Area

No complete inventory of trout streams in the southern Appalachians exists. State agencies identify certain trout streams in their fishing regulations, but criteria for inclusion differ among the states. Other streams are identified as "trout streams" based on water quality criteria, usually a limited set of temperature measurements; trout do not necessarily occur in all streams so identified. The Great Smoky Mountains National Park, however, has a complete inventory of its 736 miles of trout streams.

For the Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA) Aquatics Report Chapter 2 (pp 45-49), a trout distribution range map was produced. Stocked streams and a few isolated wild trout streams exist outside this boundary. The wild distribution extends northward to Maryland and beyond and westward into West Virginia from the SAA area. This map should be considered only a suggestion of potential trout streams. Within the identified range, individual streams may not actually have trout due to a number of local environmental or historic conditions.

Whereas coldwater fisheries occur at higher elevations in the southern Appalachians, lower elevation streams and rivers require management for nontrout fisheries. Management for warmer waters differs from coldwaters in several respects:

1. Numerous species in cool- and warm-water streams are sought by anglers, so resource management must take the biological requirements of multiple species into account.
2. Because warmwater environments occur at lower elevations, they often have more severe habitat problems related to past and present human disturbance.
3. Ecological information on interrelations among species in diverse communities of organisms and interactions with their environment often is not available.

Management in warmwater streams and rivers is currently divided between gamefish management and maintenance of the entire community of native fishes (or biological integrity) (Rabeni 1993). The two approaches need not conflict, as biological integrity may be viewed as a necessary prerequisite to species management. Managing for a diversity of fishes with different life-history and ecological requirements ensures that the stream ecosystem is performing its life-support function. When the stream is healthy, populations of top carnivores (gamefishes) are natural products. Regulation of angling pressure may be necessary on popular waterways to avoid overharvest.

Increasing human population and new technologies have led to rapid increases in recreation on lakes. Recreational demand for public freshwater lakes and reservoirs is increasing nationally and is especially high where there are few natural lakes, such as in the southern Appalachians.

The region contains nearly 870 square miles of reservoir water surface, mainly because of the large number of Tennessee Valley Authority impoundments (SAMAB 1996). Although most public reservoirs have been constructed for flood control or water supply, they are heavily used for activities such as fishing, boating, and swimming. Because these reservoirs and the adjacent public property may represent the only accessible public recreational land, additional uses such as hiking, picnicking, and aesthetics are also important.

The high demand for recreation along with the physical and ecological limits of the resource often force managers to place controls on several recreational uses, despite the ideal of free access and use of public waters. Damage to resources and conflicts among recreational uses are inevitable without the use of controls. Recreational use restrictions include:

• Speed limits on boats are among the most common use restrictions.
• Gasoline motors are often prohibited on small reservoirs within fish and wildlife areas to avoid disruption of nesting waterfowl or other animals.

• Swimming may be prohibited in reservoirs where there is no supervision or where poor water quality creates a health risk.

• Fishing seasons and limits are imposed to protect spawning fish, to manage fish populations, and to maintain a healthy fishery.

Reservoirs under intense recreational pressure can be spatially zoned to separate various uses (Engel 1989), especially where compatibility among uses is a concern. Zoning regulations should be posted at reservoir access points to inform users:

• Open-water areas can be reserved for motorboats and skiing.
• One or several shoreline areas can be designated for swimming.
• Shallow bays can be designated as quiet zones for fish or waterfowl habitat, where motors may be prohibited or limited to idle speed.

Time zoning can be established in small reservoirs where spatial zoning is not feasible (Engel 1989). For example, jet-skiing may be allowed only during certain hours near midday or on alternate days to reduce conflicts with fishing or quiet enjoyment of the reservoir.

Management of recreation on reservoirs is usually focused on two major activities: (1) boating and watersports, and (2) fishing.

Although restrictions on recreational use to some extent curtail personal freedoms we hold dear, certain limits on individual rights must be accepted to provide for the greater public good: protection of the resource. By understanding the physical and ecological limitations of reservoirs, and by considering the potential for conflict among reservoir uses, resource managers and recreation planners can more effectively manage multiple-use reservoirs (Jones 1996).

Mountain reservoirs provide spectacular settings for many watercraft-based activities, from sailing, houseboating, and canoeing to speedboating and water skiing. Scuba diving is also possible in deep, clear lakes. Fishing is another extremely popular activity, often associated with boating. The responsibility for regulating boating on waterways falls on state natural resource agencies in:

• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Alabama

Water quality characteristics may also affect reservoir recreational uses.  Reservoirs with clear water and low algal productivity (oligotrophic) are appealing aesthetically and are preferred by many for swimming and other body contact activities. However, the reduced nutrient availability in such lakes tends to support fewer fish. Conversely, as nutrient and algal concentrations increase (eutrophic), transparency decreases and fish productivity increases. In sequence, more phosphorus leads to increased algal production, which leads to increased secondary production among invertebrates, which leads to increased fish biomass as their food sources become more abundant. Tradeoffs must be made: A clear, unproductive reservoir cannot support many fish, and a eutrophic reservoir that does support fish cannot provide the aesthetic enjoyment that many users demand (Jones 1996).

Constraints may also be placed on recreational uses on reservoirs constructed for particular purposes. Examples include:

• Gasoline motors may be prohibited on drinking water supply reservoirs to prevent contamination by gasoline products.
• Swimming may also be prohibited on water supply reservoirs to avoid bacterial contamination.
• Deliberate water level drawdowns for flood control storage or consumptive water uses can cause problems for boat launching, navigation, and beach use.

Effects of Physical and
Ecological Constraints (Columns)
on Recreation in Reservoirs (Rows).

Physical constraints may limit the potential for recreation on some reservoirs:

• Small size may make speedboating and associated activities hazardous.
• Small, sheltered lakes might likewise be unsuitable for sailboating due to wind shielding.
• Steep banks may be a safety hazard for swimmers.
• A shallow lake with extensive aquatic plant beds restricts the amount of open water available for boating, interferes with swimming, impedes fishing access and may promote stunted fish populations.

Ecological constraints include trophic status: oligotrophy (low algal productivity) or eutrophy (high algal productivity.

Reservoir fisheries are managed for the benefits derived by the public. In managing streams and rivers, consumptive uses by humans must be balanced by concerns about biological integrity. But reservoirs are artificial systems that have not been around long enough for adapted communities to evolve. Therefore, concerns about the biological integrity of reservoirs are largely replaced by concerns that food webs adequately support gamefish. A predator-prey balance must be maintained in the system that supplies predatory fishes with plenty of food, supporting a large harvestable population of healthy individuals. Although reservoir fisheries typically focus on nonsalmonid game species, the southern Appalachians also has some reservoirs with trout fisheries.

Of course, reservoir management must also take into account effects of impoundment on the river systems of which they are part. Impoundments modify flow and water quality.  Fishing must compete with other conflicting uses such as flood control, hydropower generation, water supply, and other recreational uses.

A reservoir has a great diversity of ecological components ranging longitudinally from riverine (like a river) to lacustrine (like a lake) and latitudinally from limnetic (deepwater) to littoral (shallows). Also, among reservoirs, there is a wide range of morphometric, operational, and biological characteristics. Given these complexities, reservoir fisheries management must draw from the disciplines of hydrology, limnology, fish biology, and sociology.

Modern management involves not only specific concerns about fish and their habitats but also considers economics, aesthetics, user attitudes and desires, and the interests of the general public (Krueger and Decker 1993).

Warmwater gamefishes most often sought by anglers are listed below. For more information on these fishes, click on the individual species.

• Largemouth bass
• Spotted bass
• Crappie
• Bluegill
• Striped bass
• White bass
• Chain pickerel
• Channel catfish
• Flathead catfish
• Blue catfish
• Bullhead spp.

Popular coolwater gamefishes are listed below. For more information on these fishes, click on the individual species.

• Walleye
• Smallmouth bass
• Muskellunge
• Northern pike
• Sauger
• Rock bass
• Yellow perch

Most reservoirs are managed for warm or cool water fisheries, not trout. Of the reservoirs that have trout, most are stocked. Others have incidental wild trout, usually because they were stocked in the past or because tributaries to the reservoir have trout.

(Table: Reservoirs in the Southern Appalachian Region Greater Than About 500 Acres (About 1 Square Mile) That Have Trout Populations.)

A management program involves application of a process to achieve goals related to a fishery. The fisheries management process has five steps:

The Fisheries Management Process

1. Choice of goals
2. Selection of objectives
3. Identification of problems
4. Implementation of actions
5. Evaluation of actions

The fisheries management process depends on an information base that contains knowledge about each component of the management environment. The management environment is the combination of ecological, political, economic, and sociocultural factors that influence the management process. Managers use and contribute to the information base as the steps are executed in proper order:

1. Goals provide statements about what fisheries programs are to achieve over the long-term. Generally, they involve maintenance of fish populations and habitat quality, and satisfaction of the angling public.
2. Objectives are measurable expected outcomes that reflect achievement of goals, and specify a date when achievement is expected.
3. Problem identification determines what factors lie in the way of achievement of goals and objectives.
4. Actions are the activities selected and implemented to overcome the problems.
5. Evaluation includes the measurement of the responses of the management environment to the actions implemented relative to the levels specified in the objectives.

Management programs may be revised based on assessment of the information obtained in the evaluation step. After completing the evaluation step, management then returns to the first step in the process -- to redefine goals, choose new objectives, identify new problems, and carry out alternative actions (Krueger and Decker 1993).

The defining feature of reservoirs is that they are recently impounded rivers or streams. Therefore, several factors influencing fisheries are consequences of the transformation from river to lake:

• extensive, dendritic shoreline with steep depth contours
• high water flow-through rate, turbidity, and sediment input, and
• riverine fishes are displaced. (Hayes and others 1993)

Reservoir fish communities may be diverse or simple, and year-class strength of dominant species is often erratic (Hayes and others 1993).

Several General Classes
of Management Problems

Management approaches generally focus on three areas that can be manipulated by resource agency personnel:

1. Peoples use of the resources can be regulated.
2. Fish populations can be introduced, enhanced through stocking, or thinned.
3. Habitat is maintained or altered to benefit fish by manipulation of both physical (e.g., aquatic plant management, constructing cover) and chemical (e.g., nutrient additions, phosphorus detergent bans, artificial aeration) aspects of the aquatic environment.

Several general classes of management problems that may occur in reservoirs, their putative causes, and suggested management remedies can be found in the figure that follows.

One of the ways managers can reduce pressure on fish populations is by modifying human behavior to reduce harvest. Fisheries management must incorporate the use of appropriate and effective regulations to protect and enhance a fishery for the sustained benefit of the users now and in the future. Regulations should have a strong scientific base, and used to meet specific objectives and established management goals.

Regulations consist of licensing users and may limit the place or time that fishing takes place, the number of fish taken (creel limits), or the size or age of harvested fish (size or slot limits).

State natural resource agencies are responsible for regulating fisheries in public waters, and provide information on fishing, advisories, and regulations governing each states waters. For additional information from these agencies, click on the state of interest.

• Virginia
• West Virginia
• Tennessee
• North Carolina
• South Carolina
• Georgia
• Alabama