Brook Trout Could Be The Only Thing Separating Marcellus Gas Drillers from Fortunes

In the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this past Sunday was an article about recently discovered trout populations in Pennsylvania. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission is going to vote on whether to designate “98 streams statewide as Naturally Reproducing Wild Trout Waters, following the recent discovery there of trout populations, some by volunteer anglers working in a program that trains them to do stream surveys.” Interesting article with a lot of details and quotes from people in the environmental, state government and gas factions.

This could trigger further testing and land use restrictions that could impede Marcellus shale gas drilling operations in some areas. I’ll mention again that I think gas drilling done safely would be great, but the natural gas drilling industry has a spotty record so far.

Pennsylvania has some great online resources but I can’t keep them all straight. They have great fishing maps with all types of water and regulations shown. Then they have all these designations like Class A Wild Trout Streams, Streams that Support Natural Reproduction of Trout, Wilderness Trout Streams and more. The 98 streams mentioned in the article above are going to be voted on for inclusion in one of these categories. I could guess but I’m not completely sure which of these is it.

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