NY NFC Leads Effort to Post Information Signs on Self-Sustaining Brook Trout ponds in Adirondack Region
NY NFC board member Aaron Hardy posting an informational sign denoting the prohibition on the use or possession of live baitfish.
“To use bait is to lose bait... When that bait is nonnative live minnows you risk introducing diseases, viruses, and parasites, as well as establishing populations of what are often highly invasive fish.”
NY NFC has partnered with New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Adirondack Wilderness Advocates, SUNY-ESF Student Chapter Of The American Fisheries Society, Paul Smith’s College Fisheries and Wildlife Science, and Mohawk Valley Trout Unlimited to post informational signs pertaining to the prohibition on the use or possession of live baitfish in designated brook trout ponds in the Adirondack region.
Although some waters are currently being stocked, this could be reversed via a policy change up the road while the removal of nonnative minnows introduced through their use as bait can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and impact more than just the water they were released in.
With roughly 50 waters to post, at the water and trailheads, the project which started in November 2023 is expected to run through 2024. While 11 of the 50 waters have already been posted by NFC this fall, the group looks to get back out in late December to get some other waters posted before spring.
