Hi there! It’s been about a month since I arrived at beautiful Shenandoah National Park, and I am loving it! My name is Rowan Fay, and I am an undergraduate student at Oregon State University. I am studying ecological engineering and sustainability and hope to someday pursue a graduate degree in water resource engineering. Ultimately, I hope to find a career in developing safer, more efficient fish passages and removing dams. I have a passion for aquatic ecology, and a particular affinity for salmonids. My project at Shenandoah National Park revolves around a specific salmonid, Salvelinus fontinalis, or brook trout.

An adult brook trout weighed and measured, caught during an electrofishing sample (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)
An adult brook trout weighed and measured, caught during an electrofishing sample (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)

Brook trout, while common throughout the park, are facing a variety of threats, from resource competition due to non-native species, like Salmo trutta, or brown trout, acid deposition, and climate change. Brook trout require cold water, and rising stream temperatures due to climate change are decreasing the amount of suitable habitat. Several decades worth of brook trout monitoring data park shows that brook trout abundance is decreasing across much of the park and their distribution may be shrinking.

My project focuses on this issue. This summer, I am working to create a citizen science brook trout monitoring program. Underwater cameras will be used to conduct presence/absence surveys to determine which populations are most likely to be impacted by climate change. Knowing which streams are affected can help prioritize locations for interventions and develop more effective restoration and protection measures

A YOY (Young-Of-the-Year) brook trout captured on underwater video (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)
A YOY (Young-Of-the-Year) brook trout captured on underwater video (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)

During these last few weeks, I have been developing the protocol for the underwater video program and getting out into the field to test it myself! The data I collect testing the protocol will be used to determine the efficacy of the surveying method across a wide range of habitats and underwater visibility conditions by comparing it to previously collected data on trout presence throughout the park. Eventually, citizen scientists will be able to conduct video surveying independently while venturing through Shenandoah National Park and return collected data to NPS.

The Shenandoah National Park fish crew electrofishing the Rapidan River (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)
The Shenandoah National Park fish crew electrofishing the Rapidan River (Photo Credit: Rowan Fay, 2022)

Along with my project, I have been learning about the park, its wildlife and history, and working with the rest of the Shenandoah fish crew conducting (pun intended) electrofishing monitoring throughout the park. Electrofishing is the process of using electricity, flowing between two probes (anode and cathode), to affect fish movement, causing fish to swim towards the probes or become stunned, ultimately making them easy to catch, identify and measure (Don’t worry! The fish are not harmed and are returned to their habitats!). This process gives the park an idea of what fish are present where, and in what numbers. It has been a lot of work, and a lot of fun!

Stay tuned for updates on the project!

Rowan