News Channel 9 – In 2018, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published a draft recovery plan for the Cumberland Darter, a pencil-shaped, three-inch fish whose range has been reduced to just a handful of streams in Southeast Kentucky and Northeast Tennessee, including in the Jellico Mountains.
The Cumberland Darter’s precipitous decline was caused by poor water quality, man-made alterations to waterways, and habitat degradation caused by runoff-born sedimentation and chemicals entering its native streams. On Aug. 9, 2011, the Cumberland Darter was federally listed under the Endangered Species Act.