Fishes of the Smokies

Grant Fisher has spent years as an employee for the National Park Service in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. There, he conducted park-wide vital signs surveys of fish and aquatic insect species, helped restore populations of native Brook Trout, worked to systemically treat eastern hemlock trees against the infamous hemlock woolly adelgid, and removed exotic plant species from sensitive habitat areas in the Smokies. Fisher earned a bachelor's degree in environmental studies from Carson-Newman University and a master's degree from the Department of Forestry, Wildlife, and Fisheries at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. His master's work focused on determining the effect of stream restoration designs in urban environments on functional lift of aquatic insect and fish communities. Fisher is a native of Sevier County, Tennessee, where he enjoys exploring the mountains he calls home.