Excellent news for Shenandoah Nationwide Park: the drought circumstances are slowing down. The park introduced this week that they’re ending the park-wide fishing closure.
The restrictions had been in place since August of this 12 months resulting from an excessive drought. These circumstances had been seen all through the southern Appalachian Mountains and induced fires within the park and wildfires in Nice Smoky Mountains and New River Gorge Nationwide Parks.
Latest rainfall is bringing water again to the Virginia park’s rivers and creeks. Whereas this will likely appear to be excellent news for anglers, sadly, the drought could have broken the native trout inhabitants.
“Be mild with the fish and the delicate setting they inhabit. The dry circumstances doubtless lowered spawning success,” mentioned Evan Childress, a fish biologist, within the park’s press launch. “Brook trout eggs spend the winter incubating in gravel within the streams, so it’s necessary to keep away from strolling by these areas to forestall trampling of eggs.”
For essentially the most half, the park sees much less fishing within the winter as a result of chilly circumstances and the truth that peak trout fishing within the space is from March by Might.
Anybody aged 16 years and older wants a fishing license from the state of Virginia to fish within the park.
Whereas fishing has returned to Shenandoah, the park-wide hearth ban continues to be in impact. No open fires of any type are allowed.
