Watershed Conservation Plan - Destination Erie

Figure 6.4. Water quality designations of the study area's streams.
Figure 6.5 indicates stream reaches in northwestern Pennsylvania most recently documented by the
Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission for trout stocking (2008) and natural trout reproduction (2007).
Several types of trout have been stocked in our streams in recent years, but steelhead (Oncorhynchus
mykiss) is the dominant species introduced. In 2005, over 1 million steelhead originating from local and
regional state fish hatcheries were released into 11 different streams of the Lake Erie watershed (Lake
Erie Research Unit 2006). An additional 126,300 steelhead raised in local nurseries operated by a private
organization (3-C-U Cooperative) were also stocked into streams in the western half of the watershed.
Approximately 28,000 brown trout and nearly 17,000 brook trout were also stocked into our Lake Erie
streams by state and cooperative nurseries (Lake Erie Research Unit 2006). The four streams receiving
the most smolts (yearling trout) in 2005 were Elk Creek, Walnut Creek, Twentymile Creek, and Trout
Run.
The amount of time (and, hence, local tourism dollars) spent in fishing the "trout streams" of the
Pennsylvania Lake Erie watershed has increased over the past two decades (Figure 6.6), with the
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