Comparison of Two Methods of Habitat Rehabilitation for Brown Trout in aSoutheast Minnesota Stream

摘要

We evaluated habitat rehabilitation with overhead bank cover and woody debris forbrown-trout Salmo trutta under a no-kill regulation in two reaches of Hay Creek. In both treatment reaches and a downstream reference reach under normal fishing regulations, cover for trout increased, as did abundance and biomass of adult trout (age-1 and older). These habitat and population changes showed that the reference reach was not an independent control. Thus we used a regional database as our control. Comparisons with the regional database showed that the increases in abundance for the treatment reaches and the reference reach were due to improved habitat, and not natural fluctuations in abundance.