Draft bull trout recovery plan released

A revised draft recovery plan for bull trout has been released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for a 90-day public comment period.

Bull trout were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 1999, after populations were wiped out in about 60 percent of their historic range. Three draft recovery plans were completed between 2002 and 2004, but a final plan was never finished. The last five-year review was completed in 2008.

FWS concluded in its most recent report to Congress in 2012 that bull trout in the Pacific Northwest were stable, with some core area populations decreasing or increasing but none wiped out.

Bull trout need “cold, clean, complex and connected habitat,” which means water temperatures less than 53 degrees, deep pools, overhanging banks, woody debris, and access between spawning and rearing areas and downstream foraging, migration and overwintering range.

Historic habitat loss and fragmentation, interaction with nonnative species like lake trout and brook trout, and fish passage issues posed the most significant threats to bull trout in the early FWS reports.

Dewatering, sedimentation, thermal modification and water quality degradation are typically human-caused, and today those impacts are frequently mitigated, FWS found.

But climate change poses a newer threat, especially as it is related to wildfires, insect outbreaks and forest diseases. Looking several decades ahead, FWS sees “extensive conversion of subalpine forests to other forest types” by the 2080s. On top of that, snowpack losses and earlier snow melt could impact streams.

The overall goal of the new draft plan is to ensure that bull trout are geographically widespread, that genetic diversity and diverse life history forms are conserved, and cold water habitats are conserved and connected.

Described as a “road map to recovery,” FWS hopes to achieve its goals by addressing threats at the core area level, building on current conservation actions, continuing to work with partners to design, fund and implement conservation actions, and applying adaptive management principles to the recovery program.

FWS notes that the Endangered Species Act does not require that bull trout be recovered throughout its historic range or even most of its currently suitable habitat. Instead, the act requires that bull trout “no longer are likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future throughout all or a significant part of their range.”

Conservation groups, however, threaten to take FWS to federal court if they eliminate numerical standards in their goals.

“Conservation biology says if they are going to drop those goals, they are not going to recover bull trout,” said Michael Garrity, of the Alliance For The Wild Rockies. “It’s an extinction plan, not a recovery plan. They are writing off areas based on politics, not science.”

Noah Greenwald, of the Center For Biological Diversity, says numerical goals have been standard in recovery plans, even if the numbers have seemed too low.

“It sounds like they are going to leave the patient in the ICU forever and call it good,” he said.

FWS expects to publish its final recovery plan by Sept. 30, 2015. For more information or to review the plan, visit online at www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout.

The revised draft recovery plan is divided into six recovery units in five states with 121 core areas.

According to the draft plan, the two most robust and least threatened core areas are man-made reservoirs in the Columbia Headwaters Recovery Unit — Hungry Horse and Lake Koocanusa.

The recovery unit includes 35 core areas in the Idaho Panhandle and Northwest Montana. Unique to this recovery unit are 20 core areas with a single population — headwaters lakes found in Glacier National Park or the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex.

“Many are upstream of waterfalls or other natural barriers to fish migration and have persisted for thousands of years despite their small populations and isolated existence,” the draft plan states.

Identified threats in the Columbia Headwaters Recovery Unit include nonnative fish, legacy timber harvest and roads, angling impacts and contaminants from atmospheric sources.

The Saint Mary Recovery Unit on the east side of the Continental Divide includes several lakes and streams inside Glacier Park. FWS would like to see steps taken to protect fish passage and instream flow in Saint Mary River and Swiftcurrent Creek to help bull trout.

Core areas found in Glacier Park include Isabel, Harrison, Lincoln, Trout and Arrow, Logging, Quartz, Lower Quartz, Bowman, Upper Kintla, Akokala, Slide, Cracker and Red Eagle lakes.

Core areas outside the Park include Flathead, Whitefish, Upper Whitefish, Upper Stillwater, Swan, Lindbergh, Doctor, Holland, Big Salmon, Frozen and Cyclone lakes

Comments on the proposed plan may be mailed to Bull Trout Recovery, Idaho Fish and Wildlife Office, 1387 South Vinnell Way, Room 368, Boise ID 83709; faxed to 208-378–5262; or e-mailed to fw1bulltroutrecoveryplan@fws.gov. Deadline is Dec. 3.