Finally!! a different approach to put and take fish stocking in Massachusetts.
Mr. Krevosky we are all excited and share your vision, we need more of this to bring back wild trout.
We thank you for taking the first step to introducing new brook trout populations using eyed eggs, your not alone the Millers River Fisherman’s Association supports what your doing and are considering following your foot steps to also supplement the stocking of the Millers River tributaries to bring back wild trout populations.
We hope the state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife follows suit and has the vision to either do similar or allow independent contractors in bringing back wild trout in our Massachusetts streams and rivers using eyed eggs. If successful the cost and impact is a win – win situation for both our rivers and fisherman to catch wild trout in Massachusetts.
Here is a reprint of the article published in the Telegram and Gazzette
OXFORD — Glenn E. Krevosky reached down into the foot-deep, clear, 56-degree water and scooped aside a handful of pea-sized gravel, creating a nest.
Brook Trout Egg Nest
For the next couple of months, this protected spot will be home for 400 fertile brook trout eggs, and the basis for Mr. Krevosky’s contention that Barbers Hollow Brook, a once favorable environment for trout and other cold-water fish species, can be re-established.
“One of my goals is to demonstrate to the state’s fisheries biologists that it is possible to re-establish a viable brook trout population in a stream where there was once a natural population,” he said.
“Time will tell whether we will be successful,” he added.
Mr. Krevosky said the last time trout were known to inhabit Barbers Hollow Brook was before the development of the Interstate 395 roadway.
The state Division of Fisheries & Wildlife granted Mr. Krevosky a permit to stock the trout eggs on 5.3 acres he owns off Prince Street.
Mr. Krevosky, his son Mark, and Donald Tremblay created the brook trout incubator, hauling in stone and gravel to create the gravel-bottomed channel that flows into the brook.
“Those trout that hatch and survive will eventually find their way into Barbers Hollow Brook,” Mr. Krevosky said as he placed the eggs in the gravel nest, observed by Phil Nadeau of the state Department of Environmental Protection and Mark Brideau and Peter Mirick of the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife.
Ken Simmons, chief fish culturist for the DFW, who issued the stocking permit, said he knows of no other instance in which trout eggs were stocked in a stream either by state fisheries biologists or independent contractors like Mr. Krevosky.
Eyed Brook Trout Eggs
The permit was granted because the owner of EBT Environmental Consultants Inc. had demonstrated that improvements Mr. Krevosky and his team had made to the stream had lowered the stream temperature, improved stream clarity, and demonstrated the brook was capable of sustaining a brook trout population.
The other consideration was that no trout were found in late August when Mark Brideau and Richard Hartley, state fisheries biologists, surveyed Barbers Hollow Brook with fish stunners, finding a variety of species other than trout.
Mr. Krevosky said he chose the location for his trout incubator because of an upwelling of groundwater from the perimeter drain of a nearby home.
“There are plenty of other locations along Barbers Hollow Brook where trout could spawn in spring-fed gravel. I chose this for smolt development because it was on my property, and I had flow of 22 gallons per minute,” he said.
Mr. Krevosky said Barbers Hollow Brook water quality — specifically for cold-water fish species — had been compromised by beaver dams, other instances where the stream channel had been blocked, and an overgrowth of a variety of invasive plant species.
In August, Mr. Krevosky said his 12-year experience in rehabilitating Wellington Brook to the trout fishery he knew and enjoyed as a youngster served as a model for restoring Barbers Hollow Brook.
He said beaver may not have as much impact in hilly and mountainous terrain, but their impact on streams with minimal flow and minimal change in grade is considerable.
Mr. Krevosky said a brook like Barber’s Hollow should have an upper temperature of 62 degrees during the summer months. Any temperature higher than 70 degrees is lethal to brook trout, he explained.
At the time, Todd A. Richards, state fisheries biologist, said beaver impoundments had an impact on cold-water fish resources across the state, but were only one part of an equation.
He said the Division of Fisheries & Wildlife would follow Mr. Krevosky’s efforts at restoring brook trout to Barbers Hollow Brook, but added it would not necessarily be a template to follow with other brooks and streams.
“If we can restore all of Barbers Hollow Brook to its historic channel, then it should flush itself and become a self-sustaining cold-water fish resource,” he said.
Providing a timeline, Mr. Krevosky said the eggs should hatch in mid-January and grow throughout the spring and summer, based on the available food supply.
“Hopefully by this time next fall we’ll have evidence that 40, 60, 80, who knows, maybe even more, have survived and made their way downstream,” he said.
“If we have brookies from this hatch to spawn in the fall of 2015, then we know we’ve been successful,” he added.
Alex Hackman, restoration specialist with the state Division of Ecological Restoration, said that agency works closely with the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife in removing manmade dams no longer serving a useful purpose.
He cited a project in progress in Pepperell where the removal of a dam on the Nissitissit River will provide upstream fish passage to approximately 20 miles of high-quality cold-water habitat.
Like Mr. Richards, Mr. Hackman distinguished between beaver dams which are temporary and part of the ecosystem, and permanent structures that prohibit fish passage and significantly change downstream ecology.
By Bradford L. Miner, CORRESPONDENT
Reprinted from the Telegram & Gazzette
