Speaker: Lee Simard, Fisheries Biologist for VT Fish & Wildlife
Location: Upstairs at the Arlington Town Hall, Route 7A, Arlington VT
Date: November 15, 2018
Start and End Time: 7:00 PM-8:00 PM
Hosted by: The Batten Kill Watershed Alliance
Description:
The Batten Kill is one of Vermont’s pre-eminent wild trout streams and the status of its brown and brook trout populations have been closely monitored since the early 1980s. A near collapse of the brown trout population in the Batten Kill in the 1990s prompted a set of studies which indicated a lack of instream cover was leading to low survival of midsize trout and likely contributed to the population decline. A Batten Kill trout management plan was developed in 2006 incorporating findings from these studies and past sampling results to outline a series of actions designed to improve and sustain wild trout populations within the Batten Kill and its tributaries. This presentation will provide an overview of the Batten Kill fishery and then will examine the Batten Kill trout management plan, how the plan has been implemented since its development, and what the next management steps are for the watershed.