| Bull Trout Critical Habitat Area Reduced STAFF
AND WIRE SERVICE REPORTS 9/23/04 A much smaller area of the Northwest, including the Yakima River Basin, is being established as habitat necessary to protect threatened bull trout, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday. The reductions, which eliminate all major reservoirs in the Yakima River Basin and some streams, is a recognition that other programs are at least as effective in protecting habitat than anything the service would do, the agency said. The agency pointed to the Washington Forest Practices Act as one measure already in place. Wednesday's announcement represents the agency's final decision on water bodies considered critical to restoring bull trout. It is one step toward a recovery plan for the species. But conservation groups immediately blasted the announcement, calling it another step in the extinction of bull trout and a bow to special interests. Eric Anderson of Yakima, district fisheries biologist for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, agreed. "It is clear to resource managers there is a great deal of politics in resource review and management right now," he said Wednesday. Anderson has worked on bull trout issues for almost 20 years. The species, a member of the salmon family, was listed as threatened in 1998. The species has been cut off from some of its historical areas by dams, water withdrawals, warmer water temperatures, and by excessive harvest. Bull trout is one of two species listed in the Yakima River Basin. The other is steelhead trout. Wednesday's announcement on critical habitat reduces the miles of Yakima River Basin rivers and streams designated as habitat from 529 miles to 269 miles. Among listed waterways are the upper Yakima, Naches, Cle Elum, Tieton, Kachess and Teanaway rivers; the Ahtanum Creek drainage; Rattlesnake Creek and other creeks that are tributaries to the basin reservoirs. But unlike a proposed designation, the five major reservoirs are excluded, as are a number of basin creeks. Statewide, the amount of critical habitat has declined from a 2002 proposal of 2,507 miles of streams and 30,000 lake acres to 737 miles of streams and no lakes. The announcement is a response to a court order that grew out of a lawsuit settlement between the agency and two conservation groups. The suit challenged the agency for not establishing critical habitat. In response to the criticism, the agency's top official on Endangered Species Act issues, Craig Manson, said the reductions in habitat designations aren't as severe as they appear. He said the new approach gives credit to states, tribes and other federal agencies for ongoing conservation and management efforts that benefit bull trout. "We think these efforts for the most part provide a superior way of protecting bull trout than (federal) designation of critical habitat," The Associated Press quoted Manson as saying. He pointed to the Washington Forest Practices Act that provides benefits far superior to that available under a critical habitat designation. But Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, called the decision a giveaway to the timber and mining industries who support President Bush. "The large timber and mining corporations will continue to extract timber and minerals off of public lands at a huge cost to taxpayers — and also to the bull trout," he said. Development of a recovery plan is on hold while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service analyzes the current status of bull trout to determine whether listing is warranted. The review is to be completed next year.
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