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"Mr. Brook Trout" Leaving Office

August 25, 2009 - RANGELEY -- To those who know him, he is Mr. Brook Trout.

Whether you are speaking to a fisherman on the Magalloway River, a lobbyist in Augusta or a national fisheries biologist, the nickname for Forrest Bonney is always the same.

"When you think of brook trout in the United States, you think of Maine. And when you think of Maine and brook trout, you think of Forrest Bonney," said Mark Hudy, the U.S. Forest Service's national aquatic ecologist in Harrisburg, Va.

Bonney, who will retire as head fisheries biologist in western Maine on Aug. 31, has spent the past 39 years restoring and preserving wild brook trout habitat in Maine.

Along the way, he made himself into a diligent scientist and world expert as well as a unifying figure who rallied lawmakers, lobbyists and laymen around the brook trout's plight.

Small and pretty, this red-spotted fish represents Maine's clean ecosystems – and its eco-tourism future.

"The thing that brings people to Maine from a fly-fishing perspective is native trout," said game warden Reggie Hammond in Rangeley. "The people that come here are thrilled to catch a native brook trout as opposed to a bigger, stocked trout. It's the whole mystique of the wild trout."

But during the late 1800s, the species was exploited. During the log-driving days, the rivers where the fish spawned were degraded.

Today, there are at least 150 waters with wild brook trout in Maine, more than anywhere else in the eastern United States, according to a 2006 national study.

Hudy, who worked on the study, credits Bonney with the preservation of this iconic fish and with teaching fishermen how to protect it in his book "Squaretail."

"He is probably the world expert, particularly on lake brook trout. There is no other place in the country where you can fish for brook trout in their native lakes. It's gone everywhere else," Hudy said.

HIS VISION PROVES CORRECT

For four decades, Bonney worked to collect data, improve stream habitat and explain it all to the public with patience and hope. For years, he meticulously documented where the trout had done well and why.

Then in the mid-1990s, when Bucky Owen, then-commissioner of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, decided to restore the wild trout to historic levels, Bonney had the data. With a team of biologists, his research helped pass laws that limited the take to two fish rather than five, and allowed only catch-and-release, fly-fishing or artificial lures.

It was called the Quality Fishing Initiative, but it amounted to a classic Augusta fight.

"He had good data to support that it would work," said Owen in Orono. "On his guidance and with the head of fisheries Peter Bourque, we looked at a series of wild brook trout waters and instituted stricter regulations on a whole bunch. Forrest was the guy who put it all together."

Many claimed the initiative robbed fishing rights. Today, it is viewed as an overwhelming success.

"The thing I find hilarious is almost everyone who vehemently opposed and staked their reputation against it now almost uniformly takes credit for it, because it's been such a success," said Secretary of State Matt Dunlap, who chaired the Legislature's fish and wildlife committee for six years.

But there was more.

Bonney went about getting grant money and recruiting volunteers to help create deep pools and narrow corridors in wild trout rivers so the cold-water fish could thrive. The work required excavators, fluvial geomorphology experts, and grants upwards of $25,000. He found a way to "hold out my hat in my hand," get the money, and get it done.

"Forrest and Forrest's region every year leads the way in the amount of money they collect toward species projects," said John Boland, director of Maine's fisheries division.

Now Bonney's techniques for restoring wild brook trout are considered innovative in North America.

"I certainly would regard him as an expert. He really has been an important part of how we're going about managing brook trout. He really has presented and provided the rest of us with very useful information," said John MacMillan, Nova Scotia Fisheries and Aquaculture's brook trout specialist.

LEAVING HIS MARK, QUIETLY

Meanwhile, in Maine Bonney has become an endearing figure to sportsmen. To the people of Rangeley – arguably the state's most historic fishing region – he is a friend.

"They love him," Boland said.

Hammond said Bonney routinely asks wardens for input, and includes everyone. Others agree.

"He was always very open and willing to listen to concerns and take that into account," said Don Palmer, the Rangeley Region Guides and Sportsmen's Association president.

Even to those who are not fishermen, Bonney is viewed as a man who has quietly left an environmental mark.

"I think he has written a book that will be a legacy for the future. He very much provided a bridge between scientists and lay people," said Michael Alpert, director of the University of Maine Press, who edited "Squaretail."

"He provided practical information that has led to the continuation of a species that was in trouble."

Perhaps the greatest tribute to Forrest Bonney comes from one of the fisheries department's greatest critics.

"He showed us the way," said George Smith, executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance of Maine.

Smith found but one fault.

"He was too soft-spoken and reticent of the importance of his work," Smith said. "I think only in the last few years have most of us realized how important his work has been. When the national brook trout study came out, we all said, 'Here is this guy who has been trying to tell us that we have the last remaining wild brook trout. And he has been the guy teaching us about them and trying to restore their habitat.' "

Indeed, as Bonney spent one of his last work days on a tiny Rangeley stream, he questioned whether he was worth a story.

But the enormous boulders that he fashioned into channels, dumping cold water into perfect brook trout pools? These man-made waterfalls, which will last generations, please him.

"They should last that long," he said, and smiled.

Last week, Bonney spoke of future projects, and of the monitoring that needs to be done. "It would take someone with a lot of passion to do this," he confided.

The question of who will continue Bonney's work remains. But so too will the lessons imparted by his crusade for the squaretail, many believe.

"If you could write a book on what a biologist should be, it would be a biography of Forrest Bonney," said Dunlap, the Secretary of State. "Forrest Bonney always had a remarkable gift at taking science and putting it in a context that we could all understand."

By DEIRDRE FLEMING, Staff Writer, Portland Press Herald, August 23, 2009


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