Native brook trout making comeback in Smokies

May 27, 2006 - GATLINBURG (AP) -- The brook trout is making a comeback the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It's the only trout native to the eastern United States and more specifically to the southern Appalachians. Click here for the full story.

"Brookies" as they're called are regaining a foothold in the country's most visited national park on the Tennessee-North Carolina line after decades of pollution, poor land management and competition from nonnative brown and rainbow cousins.

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.

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