About 35 TU volunteers met in September 2005 for the annual working weekend collaboration between Trout Unlimited and the National Forest Service to help restore Southern Brook Trout to their native habitat. This year’s task was to remove all of the rainbow trout and other fish from McNabb Creek, a small tributary of the North River, clearing the way for a later restocking of native brookies.

Prior to 1975, McNabb Creek was a fine and healthy brook trout stream. However, during construction of the Cherohala Skyway, road crews blasted through

Anakeesta rock, which produces acids and heavy metals that leached by rainfall into the stream and killed aquatic life. What had been a thriving trout stream was reduced to barren water.

In response, the Forest Service has since removed most of the Anakeesta rubble along the Skyway and dumped several tons of lime into the headwaters to reduce the stream’s acidity to a level that will now support trout. Indeed, rainbow trout, which are stocked in

the North River, began migrating into McNabb Creek. To restore the native brook trout, it was first necessary to remove the more dominant rainbows from the stream. Using portable electro-shockers, volunteers and forest service personnel spent most of a day removing fish from the creek. In all, over 300 trout and chubs were removed from McNabb Creek and placed into the Tellico River downstream.

Restoration efforts were completed this month, when close to 200 brook trout were transferred from a nearby stream and placed into McNabb Creek, thereby ending their 30-year absence.