Trout group seeks to work with state on improving Linn Run watershed

A trout fishing organization wants to work with state conservation officials on projects that can maintain and improve seven-mile-long Linn Run and its watershed.

The stream is a high-quality habitat for trout in Ligonier and Cook townships in eastern Westmoreland County.

The hope of the Forbes Trail Chapter of Trout Unlimited, which last week unveiled its Coldwater Conservation Plan, is that the plan will serve as a baseline assessment for Linn Run and its tributaries, said Larry Myers, president of the chapter.

They want to meet with the overseer of Linn Run State Park, the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, to see what the department wants to do, Myers told a group of about 35 people at the Powdermill Natural Reserve in Cook.

“What they can’t do, we will try to get grants and provide ‘boots on the ground,’ ” Myers said.

In conducting the study, the Forbes Trail members and those assisting the effort “walked every foot of Linn Run from the headwaters to the bridge at Rector,” Myers said. They looked at the tree canopy coverage that keeps the stream cool, the streambank erosion, invasive plants, impediments to the stream from fallen logs, invasive plants and the erosion of trails.

Trout Unlimited has identified about 24 potential stream remediation projects, said Monty Murty, a former president of the Forbes Trail chapter.

Members hope to work with the conservation department on remediating flood damage and consider applying limestone to more Linn Run tributaries to improve the stream’s pH, to make it better for trout.

Myers admitted, however, that it will be “a long process”to address those projects.

“This is just the beginning,” Myers said.

The good news for the trout living in the Linn Run watershed and those who want to fish for them is that the air and water quality has improved since a 1987 study conducted by a Penn State professor. That 1987 study did not find trout in the stream because the stream’s low pH and a high amount of dissolved aluminum from acid rain, Murty said.

“Our study shows significant improvements … in the pH of the Linn Run main stem and … in the headwaters,” Murty said.

Brook trout are returning to the stream, Murty said.

But, there are potential threats to the water quality of the stream, including discharges from septic systems, old gas wells and naturally-occurring seepage from iron oxide and possible impacts from the use of road salt in the winter, Murty said.

The study also looked at the macroinvertebrates, which are part of the trout’s diet, said Andrea Kautz, a research entomologist at Powdermill Nature Reserve who assisted with the study.

“They are our little canary in the mine,” said Kautz, referring to what the number of small insects in the stream can tell about the water quality.

“We want Linn Run “continue to be the place that draws people,” Kautz said.