Every species is a link in the chain of sustainability. These rare fish are the canaries in the mine that tell us something is wrong with the planet that we must live upon. I'm proud to be involved with Conservation Fisheries and the work they do. The Chattanooga Aquarium often gets the press and should be applauded as well, but the original work on the Barrens was done with CFI.

Here's one of our local heroes getting wet. Warren Stiles is the fisheries restoration biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“We don't have a specific threshold for when we start paying attention to how drought is impacting headwater streams, but as the USDA’s U.S. Drought Monitor starts moving to higher levels, it comes to mind,” said Warren Stiles, a listing and recovery biologist at USFWS’s Tennessee Ecological Services Field Office in Cookeville, Tenn.

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