While fish species are distributed and available throughout the Commonwealth, some waters are superior to others with respect to their ability to provide a better fishing experience. In the past, when anglers had more free time to investigate individual waters, they discovered through trial and error those waters that provided better fishing. “Pennsylvania’s Best Fishing Waters” is a program established by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC) to serve as a valued resource to address these anglers’ needs and to increase the accessibility of proven waters with the result of a more successful fishing trip

© Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission This layer is a component of PAFishBoat.

Stocked Trout WatersMany streams, lakes, ponds and reservoirs are officially classified as “stocked trout waters.” This means that these waters contain significant portions that are open to public fishing and are stocked with trout. The waters listed here are open to trout harvest during the “extended season” Unlisted tributary streams (those not included in this list of “stocked trout waters”) are not open to harvest of trout during the “extended season.” Only stocked trout waters and all waters downstream of stocked trout waters are open during this period. Spearing fish is not permitted in any of these waters at any time of the year.These waters are closed to all fishing (including taking of minnows) from March 1 to 8 a.m. on the opening day of the trout season. A person shall be deemed to be fishing if he or she has in possession any fishing line, rod or other device that can be used for fishing while on or in any water or on the banks within 25 feet of any water where fishing is prohibited.Stocked Trout Waters, Open to Year-round FishingWaters with this designation are considered “stocked trout waters.” From 8 a.m. opening day of trout through Labor Day, Commonwealth inland size and creel limits apply. From Jan. 1 through the end of February, and from the day after Labor Day through Dec. 31, “extended season” size and creel limits apply. These waters are open to fishing from March 1 to opening day of trout season; however, no trout may be taken or possessed on these waters during this period. It is unlawful to fish in rivers and streams designated as stocked trout waters open to year-round fishing without a current trout/salmon permit. A trout/salmon permit is not required to fish in lakes and ponds that have been designated as stocked trout waters open to year-round fishing unless the person takes, kills or possesses, while in the act of fishing, a trout or salmon on or in these waters.

© Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission This layer is a component of PAFishBoat.

National Hydrography Dataset NHDFlowline layer with spatial representation of existing water uses defined in Title 25 Environmental Protection, Department of Environmental Protection, Chapter 93, Water Quality Standards. The Pennsylvania Code just cited provides a definition for distinguishing between designated and existing use classification. This GIS layer displays these uses spatially on an interactive stream map. Public users can drill down to locations on the map to view and map the existing uses of the water bodies of interest. The layer can also be used in conjunction with other spatially referenced data for spatial analyses.

In 1987, the Chesapeake Bay Agreement was signed by states within the Chesapeake Bay region including Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia and the District of Columbia. This agreement included commitments for providing fish passage within each state: "to provide for fish passage at dams, and remove stream blockages wherever necessary to restore passage for migratory fish." With this humble beginning, the Chesapeake Bay states set a goal to reopen a total of 1,357 miles of historical spawning grounds by the year 2003. Maryland's portion of this goal is to reopen 388.65 miles of stream. The Maryland Department of Natural Resources Fish Passage Program has taken this commitment very seriously; to date the Program has completed 61 projects, reopening a total 348.9 miles of upstream spawning habitat. Several projects scheduled to be completed by 2003 will allow the Program to not only meet but also exceed the goal set forth by the Chesapeake Bay Agreement. Meeting this goal has been a cooperative effort between the Maryland Department of Natural Resources, State Highway Administration, National Marine Fisheries Service - National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration, Department of Interior - US Fish & Wildlife, Environmental Protection Agency, Chesapeake Bay Program, Chesapeake Bay Foundation, University Maryland and a multitude of others including private citizens, local watershed groups and local governments.This is a MD iMAP hosted service. Find more information at https://imap.maryland.gov.Feature Service Link:https://mdgeodata.md.gov/imap/rest/services/Biota/MD_LivingResources/FeatureServer/0

This layer contains those lakes within Pennsylvania that have specifc special regulations related to boating as defined by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

© Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission This layer is a component of PAFishBoat.

This layer contains those streams/rivers within Pennsylvania that have specifc special regulations related to boating as defined by the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission.

© Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission This layer is a component of PAFishBoat.

This layer shows only non-attaining segments of the Integrated List. The Streams Integrated List represents stream assessments in an integrated format for the Clean Water Act Section 305(b) reporting and Section 303(d) listing. Streams are bodies of flowing surface water that collectively form a network that drains a catchment or basin. PA DEP protects 4 stream water uses: aquatic life, fish consumption, potable water supply, and recreation. The 305(b) layers represents stream segments that have been evaluated for attainment of those uses. If a stream segment is not attaining any one of its 4 uses, it is considered impaired. · Aquatic Life use attainment - The integrity reflected in any component of the biological community. (i.e. fish or fish food organisms) · Fish Consumption use attainment - The risk posed to people by the consumption of aquatic organisms (ex. fish, shellfish, frogs, turtles, crayfish, etc.) · Recreational use attainment - The risk associated with human recreation activities in or on a water body. (i.e. exposure to bacteria and other disease causing organisms through water contact recreation like swimming or water skiing) · Potable Water Supply use attainment - The risk posed to people by the ingestion of drinking water Segments that have appeared on an approved Category 5 Integrated Listing are the entries labeled as approved. Integrated Lists are submitted for approval every other year. Segments entered subsequent to the latest approved Category 5 listing are labeled tentative. After appearing on an approved listing, the tentative entries move to approved. The Stream Integrated List is provided as two separate layers determined if the stream is attaining or not attaining its designated uses. DEP Streams Integrated List layer is maintained by the PADEP Office of Water Management, Bureau of Water Supply & Wastewater Management, Water Quality Assessment and Standards Division. The layer is based on the High Resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). Additional update information is provided by Bureau of Watershed Management, Water Use Planning Division.

The PA Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and PA Game Commission (PGC) have teamed up to create an interactive map specifically for hunters. Collectively, State Forest Land and Gamelands comprise over 3.7 million acres of public forest open to hunting in Pennsylvania. Hunters can use this map to:View public forests open to hunting.Search hunting seasons and bag limits across different parts of the state.Display hunting hours (starting/ending times) across different parts of the state.Add personal GPS data to the map (waypoints and tracklogs).View different types of wildlife habitat across public forest lands, including mature oak forests, meadows, food plots, openings, winter thermal (coniferous) cover, and young aspen forest.See where recent timber harvests have occurred on public forest lands.Get deer management assistance program (DMAP) information for state forest lands.Add map layers associated with chronic wasting disease (CWD).Identify where bear check stations are located and get driving directions.Display the elk hunting zones and get information about them.Get the location of gated roads opened for hunters on public forest lands and when those gates will be opened.Analyze graphs and trends in antlerless/antlered deer harvests and antlerless license allocations from 2004 to the present.

The USGS Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation's inventory of protected areas, including public open space and voluntarily provided, private protected areas, identified as an A-16 National Geospatial Data Asset in the Cadastral Theme (http://www.fgdc.gov/ngda-reports/NGDA_Datasets.html). PAD-US is an ongoing project with several published versions of a spatial database of areas dedicated to the preservation of biological diversity, and other natural, recreational or cultural uses, managed for these purposes through legal or other effective means. The geodatabase maps and describes public open space and other protected areas. Most areas are public lands owned in fee; however, long-term easements, leases, and agreements or administrative designations documented in agency management plans may be included. The PAD-US database strives to be a complete “best available” inventory of protected areas (lands and waters) including data provided by managing agencies and organizations. The dataset is built in collaboration with several partners and data providers (http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/stewards/). See Supplemental Information Section of this metadata record for more information on partnerships and links to major partner organizations. As this dataset is a compilation of many data sets; data completeness, accuracy, and scale may vary. Federal and state data are generally complete, while local government and private protected area coverage is about 50% complete, and depends on data management capacity in the state. For completeness estimates by state: http://www.protectedlands.net/partners. As the federal and state data are reasonably complete; focus is shifting to completing the inventory of local gov and voluntarily provided, private protected areas. The PAD-US geodatabase contains over twenty-five attributes and four feature classes to support data management, queries, web mapping services and analyses: Marine Protected Areas (MPA), Fee, Easements and Combined. The data contained in the MPA Feature class are provided directly by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Marine Protected Areas Center (MPA, http://marineprotectedareas.noaa.gov ) tracking the National Marine Protected Areas System. The Easements feature class contains data provided directly from the National Conservation Easement Database (NCED, http://conservationeasement.us ) The MPA and Easement feature classes contain some attributes unique to the sole source databases tracking them (e.g. Easement Holder Name from NCED, Protection Level from NOAA MPA Inventory). The "Combined" feature class integrates all fee, easement and MPA features as the best available national inventory of protected areas in the standard PAD-US framework. In addition to geographic boundaries, PAD-US describes the protection mechanism category (e.g. fee, easement, designation, other), owner and managing agency, designation type, unit name, area, public access and state name in a suite of standardized fields. An informative set of references (i.e. Aggregator Source, GIS Source, GIS Source Date) and "local" or source data fields provide a transparent link between standardized PAD-US fields and information from authoritative data sources. The areas in PAD-US are also assigned conservation measures that assess management intent to permanently protect biological diversity: the nationally relevant "GAP Status Code" and global "IUCN Category" standard. A wealth of attributes facilitates a wide variety of data analyses and creates a context for data to be used at local, regional, state, national and international scales. More information about specific updates and changes to this PAD-US version can be found in the Data Quality Information section of this metadata record as well as on the PAD-US website, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/history/.) Due to the completeness and complexity of these data, it is highly recommended to review the Supplemental Information Section of the metadata record as well as the Data Use Constraints, to better understand data partnerships as well as see tips and ideas of appropriate uses of the data and how to parse out the data that you are looking for. For more information regarding the PAD-US dataset please visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/. To find more data resources as well as view example analysis performed using PAD-US data visit, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/resources/. The PAD-US dataset and data standard are compiled and maintained by the USGS Gap Analysis Program, http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/ . For more information about data standards and how the data are aggregated please review the “Standards and Methods Manual for PAD-US,” http://gapanalysis.usgs.gov/padus/data/standards/ .

Bald Eagles are no longer protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. Therefore, section 7 consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is no longer necessary. However, Bald Eagles remain protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act. To help landowners, land managers, and others meet the intent of the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the Service prepared National Bald Eagle Management Guidelines. This map depicts intact Bald Eagle nests in Pennsylvania with a 330', 660' and 1000' buffer zone established around each site. These locations were identified by historic data, aerial surveys, and field observations during the 2015 to 2021 nesting seasons. New nest sites may have been established since the latest surveys were completed, so additional surveys are recommended for potential development projects. You must 'zoom in' to the nest locations for the actual nest site buffer zones to appear.

This layer shows only attaining lakes of the Integrated List. The Lakes Integrated List represents lake assessments in an integrated format for the Clean Water Act Section 305(b) reporting and Section 303(d) listing. PA DEP protects 4 lake water uses: aquatic life, fish consumption, potable water supply, and recreation. The 305(b) layers represent lakes that have been evaluated for attainment of those uses. If a lake is not attaining any one of its 4 uses, it is considered impaired. Aquatic Life use attainment - The integrity reflected in any component of the biological community (i.e. fish or fish food organisms). Fish Consumption use attainment - The risk posed to people by the consumption of aquatic organisms (ex. fish, shellfish, frogs, turtles, crayfish, etc.). Recreational use attainment - The risk associated with human recreation activities in or on a water body (i.e. exposure to bacteria and other disease causing organisms through water contact recreation like swimming or water skiing). Potable Water Supply use attainment - The risk posed to people by the ingestion of drinking water. Lakes that have appeared on an approved Category 5 Integrated Listing are the entries labeled as approved. Integrated Lists are submitted for approval every other year. Lakes entered subsequent to the latest approved Category 5 listing are labeled tentative. After appearing on an approved listing, the tentative entries move to approved. The Lake Integrated List is provided as two separate layers determined if the lake is attaining or not attaining its designated uses. DEP Lakes Integrated List layers are maintained by the PADEP Office of Water Management, Bureau of Water Supply & Wastewater Management, Water Quality Assessment and Standards Division. The layer is based on the High Resolution National Hydrography Dataset (NHD). Additional update information is provided by Bureau of Watershed Management, Water Use Planning Division.

The Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission (PFBC) classifies trout waters based on several characteristics including ecosystem health, wilderness aesthetic, and fishery management strategy. Streams are designated as Class A, Wilderness Trout Stream, Wild Trout Stream, or Stocked. This map depicts streams throughout Pennsylvania's Laurel Highlands region that have been assessed and classified by the PFBC.Not all streams in the region have been assessed and classified by the PFBC. Furthering assessment is identified as a primary focus in the PFBC's 2020-2024 Strategic Plan for Trout Management to ensure adequate protections for wild trout populations and managed fisheries.