Southeastern Pa. Class A streams

[Mike]

While those from the developed Southeast are probably already aware of this fact, there are those from this board who would be surprised to learn that there are well over 100 miles of Class A streams in SE Pa. Some are streams that had few, if any wild trout in the late 1970's, but agricultural practices changed, local development or highway construction stopped for a while, and riparian land along some streams changed from grassland to a greenbelt of trees and shrubs. Sadly, I can think of no case in the region where stream improvement activities by any organization were responsible for this type of dramatic change. They are usually too small in scale. This may not be the case in the future, however, once stream bank fencing projects, which cover much more territory, are in place and maintained for a decade or so. As for known (to me) Class A stream miles lost in SE Pa. versus those gained over the past thirty years, the miles gained from stream recovery are ahead of those lost to stream degradation. Additionally, wild trout are now making gains in mining areas. They are not Class A streams, but still very good.

 

[tabasco_joe]

I tend to do a lot less searching for SE PA trout streams because it's so hard to find access. Not like central PA where a large number of streams are on public land or a single land owner gets you onto 1/4 mile or more of stream. So when I fish close to home (SE PA) I usualy go to streams like the Little Lehigh or Valley etc. that are on public land but I don't have to spend time trying to find persmission. This probably increases the pressure on these few but accessable streams.