Hemitremia

The obligatory habitat of the Flame Chub is spring-fed streams sensitive to human activities. Currently the species has a patchy range primarily in the Tennessee River Valley from the mouth of the Duck River in Tennessee upstream through Alabama to the Knoxville, Tennessee, area. Most of the Alabama portion of this range is within the Highland Rim or Cumberland Plateau physiographic sections (Mettee et al., 1996). One isolated population is known from north Georgia in the Tiger Creek watershed of Catoosa County (Freeman et al., 2009). Kentucky populations are considered by the Commonwealth of Kentucky to have been extirpated, although some doubt exists on the correct identity of specimens identified as Flame Chubs that were not adequately vouchered (Burr & Warren, 1986; Kentucky State Nature Preserves Commission, 2004). Disjunct Flame Chub populations in Calhoun and Talladega counties in Alabama in the Mobile Basin in the Alabama Valley and Ridge physiographic section to the south of the Tennessee Valley are considered to be extirpated (Boschung et al., 2004). The conservation status of the Flame Chub is poorly documented. According to NatureServe (2009), the global status of the Flame Chub is G3, Vulnerable, and the Alabama state status is S3, Vulnerable. Reflecting the poor knowledge of the species’ status, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List Category is DD (data deficient), a change from earlier listings of Rare (Gimenez-Dixon, 1996). Virtually all of the spring-fed stream habitat needed by Flame Chubs is on private land, further complicating assessment of the species’ status.