Why ESA Listing is Necessary

Current Legal Status
As a result of litigation by the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and the Friends of the Wild Swan, the bull trout has been proposed for listing by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service as a threatened species throughout the Columbia River Basin in western Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington, and as an endangered species in the Klamath River basin in southwestern Oregon. The U.S. Forest Service (regions 1, 4, & 6 in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington) classify the bull trout as both a sensitive species and a management indicator species. State fish and game agencies have closed fishing seasons for bull trout throughout their range with the exception of the Swan River drainage in Montana, Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, and Lake Billy Chinook in Oregon.

Government Stall Tactics
Even though the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's own scientific status review team concluded that bull trout are at "imminent risk of extinction" throughout their range in the 48 states, the government couldn't muster the political will necessary to protect bull trout. In an effort to appease western governors and timber interests who are opposed to listing, the government has repeatedly implemented delaying tactics, relying on promises from the governors of Idaho and Montana to implement recovery plans. However, after years of inaction and litigation, a federal judge has ordered the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service to move forward with plans to protect and recover the bull trout.

Benefits of Listing

• Clean Water/Human Health
  There are several legitimate reasons for an Endangered Species Act listing for bull trout and several benefits. As a primary indicator of water quality, bull trout protection is in the public's best interests. In our region, water is our top asset, bar none. It's many values, economic and otherwise, are top priority. As an indicator species relying on clean, cold water, bull trout are our front line of defense. Their decline is an early warning that our water quality is in jeopardy. A wide-ranging species, bull trout protection will benefit dozens of species, and save millions of dollars by avoiding a costly, species by species approach. Conversely, further decline of bull trout numbers and distribution indicates the entire ecosystem is at risk.
• States Lack Jurisdiction
  The governors of Idaho and Montana have designed hollow recovery plans which promise much more than they can ever deliver. Not only do they fail to implement specific habitat standards for bull trout, they do not address the primary factors causing the slide towards extinction. The states also do have not have jurisdiction over the vast majority of bull trout habitat, which is located on federal public, tribal, and corporate lands. Both governors have publicly admitted the major purpose of their plans is to prevent bull trout listing. The courts have rejected future promises of action from state governments as adequate reasons for preventing listing.
• States Have Credibility Problem
  The Northwest states have credibility problems based on the management of state forest lands, which suffer from overcutting and high road densities. If past is prologue, bull trout will continue to suffer. State legislatures have recently weakened water quality standards, especially in regards to mining operations.
• Business as Usual Won't Save Bull Trout
  Likewise, bull trout measures adopted by the U.S. Forest Service have been found by a federal judge to be in violation of the National Forest Management Act for failure to adequately provide for bull trout viability over the long-term. Under their plans, virtually 100% of the planned logging, roadbuilding, grazing, and mining within bull trout habitat would proceed unchanged. Business as usual will not prevent bull trout extinction.
• Mandatory Standards Apply
  A listing of the bull trout will provide the legal teeth necessary to require mandatory habitat protection standards and ensure that the best available scientific data are applied.
• Greater Coordination
  Listing will also provide a coordinating umbrella to bring together the many different jurisdictions responsible for bull trout protection, including several federal agencies, Indian tribes, five state governments, and major corporate landowners. Not only can a listing spur coordination among the different management entities, it can provide federal funding for habitat protection and restoration projects. The states lack the financial resources to go it alone.
• Biological Review/ Citizen Enforcement
  A listing also increases protection for bull trout through the consultation and conferencing requirements. For example, with listing, the Forest Service will have to consult with biologists from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service on whether or not proposed developments such as logging roads and timber sales will have an impact on bull trout recovery. The Fish & Wildlife Service would then have the legal authority to require the Forest Service to modify development proposals, or halt them altogether. There is currently no such review process. Listing also provides citizens the right to file lawsuits to prevent illegal destruction of bull trout habitat and to ensure that recovery decisions will be based upon sound scientific data rather than political pressure.
• Listing Won't Affect Sport Fishing for Other Species
  Under the proposed rule for listing, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has proposed a special rule allowing for incidental take of bull trout if in accordance with state fish and wildlife laws and regulations. Thus, if an angler accidentally catches, and then releases a bull trout, no violation of the Endangered Species Act will occur. Similarly, previous ESA listings for several species of salmon, trout, and steelhead throughout the Northwest states have never resulted in limitations on sport fishing for other fish species. Moreover, protection of bull trout habitat is expected to have a positive influence on other salmonids, spurring habitat recovery and an eventual increase in fishable populations.

Action... Or Extinction
Actions speak louder than words. Further delay will bring a wave of extinction throughout the Northwest. Top level bureaucrats seek to please politics as usual by using a rear view mirror approach to economic planning. However, our regional economy is now based on quality-of-life values. Leading economic researchers have concluded that protection of roadless watersheds combined with active wildland recovery efforts, such as road obliteration, will create thousands of new jobs, save native fish stocks, and safeguard the $1 billion dollar fishing industry in the Northwest states. Cries for state control are often code language for doing less for bull trout than they would get from an ESA listing. The fish, and us, deserve better.

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