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The Nonindigenous Occurrences section of the NAS species profiles has a new structure. The section is now dynamically updated from the NAS database to ensure that it contains the most current and accurate information. Occurrences are summarized in Table 1, alphabetically by state, with years of earliest and most recent observations, and the tally and names of drainages where the species was observed. The table contains hyperlinks to collections tables of specimens based on the states, years, and drainages selected. References to specimens that were not obtained through sighting reports and personal communications are found through the hyperlink in the Table 1 caption or through the individual specimens linked in the collections tables.

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Common name: Brook Trout

Synonyms and Other Names: Speckled Trout, Brook Charr or Char, Coaster Trout refers to sea-run (anadromous) or lake-run (potadromous) populations.

Taxonomy: available through www.itis.gov

Identification: Scott and Crossman (1973); Becker (1983); Page and Burr (1991); Etnier and Starnes (1993); Jenkins and Burkhead (1994).

Size: 70 cm.

Native Range: Most of eastern Canada from Newfoundland to western side of Hudson Bay; south in Atlantic, Great Lakes, and Mississippi River basins to Minnesota and (in Appalachian Mountains) northern Georgia (Page and Burr 1991).

Alaska	Hawaii	Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands	Guam Saipan

Native range data for this species provided in part by NatureServe

Hydrologic Unit Codes (HUCs) Explained
Interactive maps: Point Distribution Maps

Means of Introduction: This species has been stocked for sportfishing since the 1800s. It was first stocked in Arizona in 1920 (Rinne 1995). It was stocked in Missouri from 1879 to 1914 (Pflieger 1971).

Status: Established locally in many areas. This species is native to portions of the Great Lakes basin, but non-native in some inland lakes of the basin. Previously established in Soda Butte Creek in Yellowstone National Park. Extirpated via rotenone treatments in 2015 and 2016; currently monitoring and eDNA testing (Ertel 2018).

Impact of Introduction: In Black Hollow Creek, near Fort Collins, Colorado, stocked Brook Trout completely replaced greenback cutthroat trout O. clarki stomias within a period of five years (Behnke 1992, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1995). Brook Trout also have replaced Lahontan cutthroat trout Oncorhynchus clarkii henshawi in areas where the cutthroat is native and Brook Trout have been introduced. Introduced Brook Trout, and other trout species, were likely responsible for the near-extinction of Lahontan cutthroat in Lake Tahoe in the 1940s (McAffee 1966b). Becker (1983) hypothesized that Brook Trout may have been responsible for lack of success in establishing grayling populations by stocking because of the Brook Trout's more aggressive nature. Introduced Brook Trout inhabit approximately 40% of bull trout S. confluentus streams in Montana and may be replacing native bull trout in that state through hybridization. Almost all the resulting hybrids are sterile. Bull trout are now a species of special concern in Montana (Holton 1990; Kand et al. 2002). Introduced Brook Trout are known to replace native golden trout O. aguabonita (McAffee 1966a; Moyle 2002). Introduced predatory fishes, including the Brook Trout, are likely at least partially responsible for the decline of the Chiricahua leopard frog Rana chiricahuensis in southeastern Arizona (Rosen et al. 1995).

Remarks: A popular sport fish, especially with fly fishermen. Tyus et al. (1982) mapped the distribution of Brook Trout in the upper Colorado basin. Loyacano (1975) lists Brook Trout in the Santee-Cooper and Savannah drainages in South Carolina but does not indicate that it is introduced. Rohde et al. (1994) do not show it in the Santee-Cooper drainage in South Carolina. Swift et al. (1986) listed it as native to the Savannah (South Carolina/Georgia), Chattahoochee (Georgia), and Coosa (Georgia) drainages. Hocutt et al. (1986) listed it as native but possibly introduced to the Santee drainage (SC). Etnier and Starnes (1993) listed the native status of this species as uncertain in the Conasauga (Coosa) system. Underhill (1986) listed it as native to Isle Royal in Lake Superior (Michigan). Stauffer et al. (1995) listed this species as native to the Kanawha below the falls, and as probably present and native to the Little Kanawha drainage in West Virginia. Starnes et al. (2011) state that Brook Trout were present in some headwaters of the Difficult Run system (Potomac River drainage), listing it as possibly non-native, but is now extirpated from the region. Neville and Bernatchez (2013) examined the population genetics of Idaho river populations and available hatchery strains, finding a large degree of genetic structuring both within and among river populations, and a high degree of likely admixture of hatchery strains in the wild. These genetic data also showed that while the sampled hatchery populations were the likely origin for most Brook Trout in Idaho, a substantial portion were derived from an unknown genetic origin; this genetic mixing of Brook Trout strains likely increased the diversity of founding populations, and enhanced establishment and invasion success. Koenig et al. (2015) examined the ability of stocked Tiger Muskellunge (Esox lucius x E. masquinongy) to reduce or eradicate Brook Trout populations in high alpine lakes in Idaho, finding >90% reduction in Brook Trout catch per unit effort in tiger muskellunge-stocked lakes with 0-1 inlets or outlets.

Fact sheet and distribution map for splake [Salvelinus fontinalis x namaycush] is available here.

 

References: (click for full references)

Becker, G.C. 1983. Fishes of Wisconsin. University of Madison Press Madison, WI.

Behnke, R.J. 1992. Native trout of western North America. American Fisheries Society Monograph 6. American Fisheries Society, Bethesda, MD.

Burkhead, N.M., S.J. Walsh, B.J. Freeman, and J.D. Williams. 1997. Status and restoration of the Etowah River, an imperiled southern Appalachian ecosystem. Pages 375-444 in Benz, G.W., and D.E. Collins, eds. Aquatic fauna in peril: the southeastern perspective. Southeast Aquatic Research Institute, Lenz Design & Communications. Decatur, GA.

Delong, J. 2002. Nevada Focus: stocked fish upset Lake Tahoe ecosystem. San Francisco Chronicle. Associated Press. August 6, 2002.

Ertel, B. 2018. Preservation of Native Cutthroat Trout in Northern Yellowstone. https://www.nps.gov/articles/preservation-of-native-cutthroat-trout-in-northern-yellowstone.htm. Accessed on 04/23/2018.

Etnier, D.A. and W.C. Starnes. 1993. The Fishes of Tennessee. The University of Tennessee Press, Knoxville, TN.

Griffiths, F. P. 1939. Considerations of the Introduction and Distribution of Exotic Fishes in Oregon. Trans. Am. Fish. Soc. 69:240-243.

Hocutt, C. H., R. E. Jenkins, and J. R. Stauffer Jr. 1986. Zoogeography of the Fishes of the Central Appalachians and Central Atlantic Coastal Plain. In C.H. Hocutt and E.O. Wiley, eds. The Zoogeography of North American Freshwater Fishes. pp. 161-212.

Insider Viewpoint. 2001. Fishing Records – Nevada. Insider Viewpoint Magazine. 3 pp.

Kanda, N., R.F. Leary, and F.W. Allendorf. 2002. Evidence on introgressive hybridization between bull trout and brook trout. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society. 131: 772-782.

Koenig, M.K., K.A. Meyer, J.R. Kozfkay, J.M. DuPont, and E.B. Schriever. 2015. Evaluating the ability of Tiger Muskellunge to eradicate Brook Trout in Idaho alpine lakes. North American Journal of Fisheries Management 35(4):659-670. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02755947.2015.1035467

Loyacano, H.A., Jr. 1975. A list of freshwater fishes of South Carolina. Bulletin of the South Carolina Experimental Station 580:1-9.

McAffee, W.R. 1966a. Golden trout. Pages 216-221 in Calhoun, A, ed. Inland fisheries management. California Department of Fish and Game. Sacramento, CA.

McAffee, W.R. 1966b. Lahontan cutthroat trout. Pages 225-231 in Calhoun, A, ed. Inland fisheries management. California Department of Fish and Game. Sacramento, CA.

Mecklenburg, C. W.,  et. al. 2002 Fishes of Alaska. Amercian Fisheries Society. 1037 pp.

Miller, R.R. and C.H. Lowe. 1967. Part 2. Fishes of Arizona, p 133-151, In: C.H. Lowe, ed. The Vertebrates of Arizona. University of Arizona Press. Tucson.

Moyle, P.B. 2002. Inland fishes of California. Second edition. University of California Press, Berkeley, CA.

Neville, H.M., and L. Bernatchez. 2013. Coding gene single nucleotide polymorphism population genetics of nonnative brook trout: the ghost of introductions past. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society 142(5):1215-1231. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00028487.2013.793613

Rasmussen, J.L. 1998. Aquatic nuisance species of the Mississippi River basin. 60th Midwest Fish and Wildlife Conference, Aquatic Nuisance Species Symposium, Dec. 7, 1998, Cincinnati, OH.

Rohde, F.C., R.G. Arndt, D.G. Lindquist, and J.F. Parnell. 1994. Freshwater Fishes of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland, and Delaware. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, NC.

Rosen, P.C., C.R. Schwalbe, D.A. Parizek, Jr., P.A. Holm, and C.H. Lowe. 1995. Introduced aquatic vertebrates in the Chiricahua region: effects on declining native ranid frogs. Pages 251-261 in DeBano, L.H., P.H. Folliott, A. Ortega-Rubio, G.J. Gottfried, R.H. Hamre, and C.B. Edminster, eds. Biodiversity and management of the Madrean Archipelago: the sky islands of southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. US Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Forest and Range Experiment Station. Fort Collins, CO.

Schofield, C.L., D. Josephson, C. Keleher, and S.P. Gloss. 1993. Thermal stratification of dilute lakes-evaluation of regulatory processes and biolgical effects before and after base addition: effects on brook trout habitat and growth. USFWS Biological Report. 1993(9).

Starnes, W.C., J. Odenkirk, and M.J. Ashton. 2011. Update and analysis of fish occurrences in the lower Potomac River drainage in the vicinity of Plummers Island, Maryland—Contribution XXXI to the natural history of Plummers Island, Maryland. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington 124(4):280-309.

State of Oregon. 2000. Warm Water Game Fish Records. 7 pp.

Stauffer, J.R., Jr., J.M. Boltz, and L.R. White. 1995. The fishes of West Virginia. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA.

Swift, C.C., T.R. Haglund, M. Ruiz, and R.N. Fisher. 1993. The status and distribution of the freshwater fishes of southern California. Bulletin of the Southern California Academy of Sciences 92(3):101-167.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. 2001. Fish Records: Water Body - All Tackle. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department. April 24, 2001

Tilmant, J.T. 1999. Management of nonindigenous aquatic fish in the U.S. National Park System. National Park Service. 50 pp.

Tyus, H.M., B.D. Burdick, R.A. Valdez, C.M. Haynes, T.A. Lytle, and C.R. Berry. 1982. The fishes of the upper Colorado River basin: distribution, abundance, and status. Pages 12-70 in Miller, W.H., H.M. Tyus, and C.A. Carlson, eds. Fishes of the upper Colorado River system: present and future. Western Division, American Fisheries Society. Bethesda, MD.

Underhill, J.C. 1986. The fish fauna of the Laurentian Great Lakes, the St. Lawrence lowlands, Newfoundland, and Labrador. Pages 105-136 in Hocutt, C.H., and E.O. Wiley, eds. The zoogeography of North American freshwater fishes. John Wiley and Sons. New York, NY.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 1995. Greenback cutthroat trout recovery plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Denver, Colorado.

Other Resources:
Distribution in Illinois - Illinois Natural History Survey

Global Invasive Species Database Factsheet

Author: Pam Fuller, and Matt Neilson

Peer Review Date: 9/30/2015

This information is preliminary or provisional and is subject to revision. It is being provided to meet the need for timely best science. The information has not received final approval by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and is provided on the condition that neither the USGS nor the U.S. Government shall be held liable for any damages resulting from the authorized or unauthorized use of the information.