"As climate change reshapes the Blue Ridge, Appalachia’s native trout are losing ground — but dedicated anglers and scientists are racing to save them."
"On a startlingly beautiful day high in the Blue Ridge Mountains, Thomas Champeau waded into Yellowstone Prong hoping to catch the elusive Southern Appalachian brook trout. A pull-off along Blue Ridge Parkway had led him to a short path lined with mountain laurel. He and a smattering of afternoon anglers followed it to a rocky creekbed running cold and clear toward the Pigeon River. Champeau, already in waders, left a cooler on the bank in case of a lucky catch and stepped in. Rod in hand, he treaded lightly from one smooth rock to another, carefully staying out of sight of his quarry. Brook trout are, like Champeau, alert, cautious, and observant, hanging tight in the shaded pools where they make their home.
“Your approach has to be low, quiet, and so it’s a little bit like hunting ‘cause you’re kind of stalking as opposed to just fishing blindly,” Champeau, a former biologist who runs communications for a local chapter of Trout Unlimited, said. After an unsuccessful cast he reeled the line back in and moved upstream.
All around, the landscape was blooming and greening with summer. It still bears the scars left by Hurricane Helene, which tore through the region in September 2024. Trillions of gallons of rain turned placid streams into raging torrents that overran homes and forests. The storm upended streams and radically remade trout habitat. Researchers and anglers looking for the fish have navigated eroded streambanks, downed logs, and debris. “Rocks bigger than a refrigerator have been pushed around,” Champeau said while casting into a calm pool."
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