Time Loves a Hero - The Ramey Creek Rescue

Ramey Creek sits along the eastern escarpment in a quiet, overlooked portion of our North Carolina Mountains. Situated between Saddle Mountain, The Devotion Estate, and Cumberland Knob, the creek is an idyllic setting in an area that is rich with history. But today’s story starts in the very near past, and it doesn’t invoke fond memories, but rather is a lesson of how one man’s actions can decimate a population that has genetically been present for over a million years.

In late 2019, a multi-state agriculture entrepreneur purchased 400+ acres of prime mountain land along the federally protected Blue Ridge Parkway outside of the Cumberland Knob Recreation Area. Months later, local anglers and citizens began noticing large-scale clear-cutting, increased sediment, and dead aquatic life throughout the stream. Biologists were called to the scene, and what they saw gravely concerned them. The riparian buffer along the stream had been completely removed, water temperatures were skyrocketing, sediment levels were unbearable, and a once-thriving native brook trout population was severely impacted.

Laws in North Carolina exempt basic forest/stream protections in the name of agriculture, and this is often taken advantage of by bad actors. This specific person wasn’t just a bad actor; their company had significant environmental violations across multiple states dating back to the 1990s. Due to these laws and the slow judicial process, the farmer was able to continue clear-cutting and cattle grazing along the stream until the situation became dire. Biologists realized there were fewer than 50 trout total in a stream that once had a high-density population. The decision was made that an emergency rescue had to take place.

Just miles down the road on land protected by a local nature conservancy sits a tiny unnamed tributary that once held native brook trout but was clear-cut in the mid-1900s. Over time, the pH content improved as the stream healed, but it remained troutless due to the initial extirpation. NC Wildlife Resources Commission, with the help of Piedmont Land Conservancy, electroshocked the remaining trout in Ramey Creek, put them in oxygenated backpacks, and got into UTVs to transport them quickly to the nearby tributary. This emergency rescue was just in time, as the stream became completely uninhabitable just days later as water temperature and sediment levels became dire.

Over the following 3 years, Bottomley Company continued to bypass any accountability for their actions. They went as far as having their own manual laborers attempt an unprofessional stream restoration instead of hiring an actual environmental firm as required by the court. In 2025, the judge ruled he had to pay a $93,000 fine, one of the largest in state history for a stream-related environmental incident. Unfortunately, that amount of money is just a fraction of Bottomley Company’s weekly revenue, and as of today, Ramey Creek is completely fishless.

To end on a positive note, NCWRC monitors the unnamed tributary on protected land each year, and the descendants from the Ramey Creek brook trout are doing just fine in their new home. Safe forever from negative human impact, the Ramey Creek rescue is a reminder that in today’s day and age, where everything is one side or the other, conservation is complex, and a one-size-fits-all model isn’t applicable. I am all for sustainable logging, and I am also a strong proponent that certain sensitive natural areas aren’t compatible with recreational opportunity and should be left alone.

Last winter, I parked along the Blue Ridge Parkway and hiked off-trail 2 miles down to the unnamed tributary on Ramey Mountain Ridge. The sun was beaming over the mountain as I ducked under mountain laurel and large swaths of rhododendron until I finally came up to the stream. I smiled when I saw the prime habitat—cold, clean mountain water. I crouched low and scooted over the rocks until I came up on a particularly nice plunge pool. Sitting in the very front of the pool, rising occasionally for a small hatch, was a vibrant, orange brook trout. I hadn't packed my fly rod; I had no desire to catch these fish that had endured so much. I just wanted to confirm with my own eyes that they were there.

Walking back up the ridge to my car, I thought about the trout gone from Ramey Creek. I thought about the native brook trout and wild brown trout no longer in Widows Creek. I thought of the low-elevation brook trout in Dancey Mountain Creek that biologists were thrilled to discover in 2009, but gone just like that when they returned in 2015. I couldn’t help but ponder how many more trout would disappear in my life. They say time loves a hero, and I think the actions of the biologists that day on Ramey Creek will be remembered fondly with time.

Disclaimer—THAS is strongly opposed to hot spotting. All stream names listed in this writing are extirpated and no longer hold trout. Thus, it would be impossible to hot spot them. Additionally, this writing is for conservation-related purposes.