What does freestone mean?
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Brownsbuck nailed it. Largely because of the pH difference, stream fertility is much higher. It is kind of like soils in deer management. The underlying fertility of the soil is the limiting factor for they deer herd, and the underlying fertility of the soil and water is a limiting factor for trout (there are other factors like temp and oxygenation). For fly fisherman, that fertility has a special place. The entomology of the stream is fantastic. Different kinds of mayflies are constantly hatching not to mention the other kinds of flies. I took a stream side entomology class at PSU.
Since the OP is participating in this tangent, I'll add short description of what it can be like. There is a very large Mayfly they call the Shadfly locally. It is very large with a brilliant white body and the long 3 part tail characteristic of mayflies. Penn's creek runs along an old railroad bed. When the mayfly hatch comes of the stream can look like it is boiling and fly fishermen pack the banks of the easy access points. It can be hard to find a spot to fish. The state acquired the railroad bed. They did not want vehicles on it, so they built railings on a trestle that crosses the creek. They are far enough apart that you can walk across the bridge, but not wide enough for a vehicle to cross...with one exception
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I had a small motorcycle that I rigged up to carry my fly rod. I could not ride it across the trestle because it was too tight, but it just fit if I walked it across. So, I was able to ride a couple miles along the trestle to get away from other fly fishermen. I can remember a standing in the middle of the stream in waders in a pool that looked like it was boiling with fish rising. The moon light reflected off the pool and a cloud of shadflies surrounded me. I could hear clicking of my fly rod against the bodies of these beautiful large insects as I moved it back and forth through the cloud to cast. I can't remember how many trout I caught and released that night. Fish in the 18" to 20" class were the only keepers.
By contrast, the area I grew up in was mining country. Most of the sizable streams were orange with acid mine drainage and void of life. The only healthy streams were small freestone mountain streams. They had native brook trout in them and most were the size of your finger. If you caught a fish over 6", it was a trophy.
Ok, while I'm on a roll....
Another nearby stream was Spruce Creek. Most of it was private land. I could see the presidential helicopter when it would bring in President Carter to one of the private farms to fish. On another section of spruce creek, Penn State had a research project. They had observation towers along the stream. That research project is where the "seats in a restaurant" analogy which changed the way streams were stocked going forward. They observed and identified native fish in the stream and then stocked it and observed what happened. It turns out that one of the limiting factors for trout is a "seat at the table". There are spot in the stream where the energy spent swimming against the current is less than the energy derived from the food that floats by. Trout will actually fight for these positions and the fittest get the best seats in the restaurant. What happened when the stream was stocked is that the stocked fish naturally went to these locations. A native fish would easily fight it off, but soon another stocked fish would show up and the native fish would easily fight it off. The problem was that there were so many stocked fish suddenly showing up, that the native fish would eventually exhaust its energy and die. Stocked fish rarely overwintered and spawned, so stocking a stream with a native population was actually reducing the native populations of the stream. From this data, the state changed their stoking program. They identified streams near population centers as put-and-take streams. Outside those population centers, they analysed streams and those that had a self-sustaining native population were designated as such. They did not stock these and instituted special regulations to limit harvest to sustainable levels. It was great research.
Ok, nostalgia over.
Thanks,
Jack
