The cold, clear water of LeConte Creek cascades over moss-covered boulders, lingers momentarily in small pools skirted by dense rhododendron and then rushes on through the hemlock, poplar, birch and maple forest. It’s here and in a handful of other streams in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that the brook trout _ the only trout native to the eastern United States and more specifically to the southern Appalachians _ is making a comeback.

Imperiled from Georgia to Maine by decades of pollution, poor land management and competition from nonnative brown and rainbow cousins, “brookies” are regaining a foothold in the country’s most visited national park on the Tennessee-North Carolina line. For the first time in 30 years, catching and keeping brook trout became legal again in the Smokies under an experimental program begun in April. The announcement came just days before a coalition of conservation groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and fish and game departments in 17 states announced an Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture to restore brook trout habitat.

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