Cutthroat Trout Status To Be Reviewed

December 21, 2004

Release from: Becky Bohrer
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. -- A federal judge in Colorado has ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to re-evaluate the status of Yellowstone cutthroat trout and whether the fish should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

The agency "arbitrarily and capriciously" concluded that a petition seeking federal protection for the fish did not present "substantial information" that such protection was warranted, federal Judge Phillip S. Figa wrote in a decision issued late last week.

Figa ordered the Fish and Wildlife Service to complete a 12-month review of the matter.

Conservation groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, hailed the decision. The Fish and Wildlife Service has not yet decided whether it will appeal, an official said Tuesday.

The issue dates to 1998, when conservation groups filed a petition asking that the interior secretary list the Yellowstone cutthrout trout as threatened, citing threats such disease and habitat degradation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service rejected the request in 2001, saying the petition didn't contain "substantial information" to support protection for the fish, and that some of the information it did contain was outdated or contradictory.

Conservation groups challenged that decision, asking that the agency be required to re-evaluate its stance.

Historically, Yellowstone cutthroat trout were believed to have occupied much of the Yellowstone River basin, including portions of the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone River, Bighorn River, and Tongue River basins in Montana and Wyoming, and parts of the Snake River basin in Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Nevada.

But officials say Yellowstone cutthroat have suffered substantial declines in both numbers and distribution and now occupy just a fraction of their historical range.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service turned their back on science, and the court rightly turned them around," said Noah Greenwald, a conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.

Chuck Davis, endangered species litigation coordinator at the Fish and Wildlife Service regional office in Denver, said the agency would have to find money to do a new review, adding that financial constraints delayed the initial review.