A Small But Symbolic Win for WV Brook Trout...
Note the nonnative brown trout on the left and brook trout on the ground on the right…
“Removing the nonntive brown trout and brook trout on the ground pictures was a small symbolic victory for wild native brook trout in West Virgina…”
NFC has been trying for well over a year to get some pictures on the WV Department of Natural Resource informational webpage for brook trout replaced with more biologically accurate and ecologically responsible ones. One picture showed a nonnative brown trout instead of a native brook trout, and the other showed a brook trout lying on the ground.
While we can almost understand the brook trout on the ground picture as many people do not know what proper fish is and why it’s important, misidentifying your official state fish is not something that can be defended in any way. In fact, no other state symbol in West Virgina was misidentified…
After contacting DNR to try to get it fixed, we were told that while the page was housed on their website it was administered by the Dept. of Tourism and they couldn't touch it.
We sent several emails to DOT over a period of a few months that went unanswered. During a subsequent Zoom meeting with DNR, we asked if they could put some pressure on DOT to address it. They said they would reach out to DOT, but apparently DNR didn't have any better luck than we did as nothing changed for another 3 or more months...
Next we sent out an OpEd to several WV newspapers to see if we could reach DOT that way. At least one paper ran the OpEd and maybe more…
We also replied to a DOT Facebook post requesting that they properly identify brook trout on the webpage while noting that placing fish on the ground can harm them or worse:
Lasstly, we emailed the legislative committee chair for Agriculture which oversees fish and wildlife, requesting that they look into it on our behalf. As a sportsman, we figured they might feel the same as we did once it was pointed out. Especially since brookies are the official state fish.
While we can't say what tipped the scales, less than a week after the OpEd's, Facebook post, and email to the legislative committee chair, the page was finally updated. Hopefully they will circle back and put a better habitat picture up and ideally a picture of a properly handled brook trout.
The revised brook trout informational webpage…
This shows once again that even when the situation seems hopeless, and this certainly did for some time, you can influence change if you have a sound position, state it in a fair, accurate, and impersomal manner, stay with it, and adjust your strategy accordingly along the way…
What we would have liked to see
While this is more in line with what we were hoping for, removing the brown trout and fish on the ground pictures was a small symbolic victory for wild native brook trout in West Virgina…