The PA Fish and Boat Commission’s (PFBC) Fisheries and Hatcheries Committee Meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, July 8th, at 10:00 am. One of the topics to be discussed is the stocking of trout over Class A populations. Anyone interested in protecting wild and native trout should attend this meeting. On each of the pages below, you’ll find links to the virtual meeting.

At their last meeting, the committee proposed a “test program” on Freeman Run in Potter County, PA. In 2021, sections 3 and 4 of Freeman Run became Class A and stocking on this stream ceased. Within three years (2023/24 surveys) wild trout biomass increased from 60 kg/h to 100 kg/h. (The minimum requirement to be deemed Class A “mixed brown/brook” is 40 kg/h in Pennsylvania.) The fact that the biomass in Freeman Run increased substantially in such a short period indicates a healthy, thriving fishery of wild trout that has likely been suppressed by stocking for many years.

In fact, the PFBC noted that once small to medium-sized freestone streams reach Class A level, and stocking is discontinued, the biomass in those streams has historically increased 2-5 times — and that number is even higher on limestone streams!

What’s the big deal? The Committee plans to vote on a “test program” that includes resuming stocking section 4 of Freeman Run for five years (2026-2030) and then resurveying the stream to see if the biomass has been negatively impacted.

More importantly, any decision made by the Commissioners (many of whom are NOT biologists and have NO background in fisheries management) sets a dangerous precedent. At the meeting, they will vote on whether to allow an exemption from not stocking Class A streams so that this test program can proceed on Freeman Run. If it passes, how long until all Class A streams in Pennsylvania are stocked again? And how long until our greatest natural resource, our wild fisheries, suffer the consequences?

There’s a time and a place for it. Our Class A streams are not that place. 

Anyone who would like to attend the PFBC quarterly meeting on July 8 to comment on this matter, please contact Dave Rothrock, chairman of the Trout Policy Committee, at [email protected] to coordinate comments.