Bull trout: Feds propose critical habitat, recovery plan
By BUDDY SMITH Staff Reporter

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Thursday released two proposals - a draft blueprint for recovering the threatened bull trout and a proposal to designate critical habitat for the fish native to Montana and the Bitterroot.

The bull trout was listed as threatened in 1998 and in 1999 under the Endangered Species Act. Last January, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reached a court settlement with two Montana environmental groups, agreeing to a schedule for designating critical habitat.

The proposed designations are for the Klamath and Columbia River basins, the latter of which includes much of Montana and the Bitterroot. The habitat designations as proposed would mean little change in Montana, officials said, since endangered species consultation already occurs because of the federal listing in the late 1990s.

"If a Montana landowner right now doesn't have a concern with the bull trout listing, they're not going to have a concern with critical habitat," said Diane Katzenberger, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman in Denver.

Simultaneously, the agency released a draft plan containing recommendations for recovering bull trout in three populations, including Montana. A recovery plan, which would be advisory only and carry no regulatory authority, officials said, would represent the agency's estimation of actions necessary for the recovery of the species and de-listing, ultimate goals of the Endangered Species Act.

"I'm sure that critical habitat will draw a lot of the attention, but I really think the recovery plan is a more significant issue," said Wade Fredenberg, native species coordinator at the Creston Fish Hatchery in Kalispell. "We've finally reached a point where we're ready to come out and explain what kind of things we think need to happen for bull trout recovery to take place."

The Fish and Wildlife Service estimated bull trout recovery throughout their range could take from 15 to 25 years, if actions in the recovery plan are implemented, at a cost of up to $500 million.

The native fish, which prefer cold water and usually live high in watersheds, are now protected in their historic range excluding Alaska. Main populations remaining in the lower 48 states are in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. Nevada's Jarbridge River contains the nation's southernmost bull trout population.

The draft recovery plan has 24 chapters representing different units, including 300 pages for the Clark Fork drainage, Fredenberg said, which includes the Bitterroot River and its tributaries. The chapters are sort of "mini-plans," officials said, each specific to larger watersheds. Fredenberg said the plan notes that, historically, bull trout in distant Lake Pend d'Oreille probably made their way far to the headwaters of Silverbow Creek, thus the Clark Fork is one overall unit.

"And I guess one way to look at that is ... you could say it's a tree and the root ball is Pend d'Oreille and the trunk is the Clark Fork," Fredenberg said. "And streams like Rock Creek, the Blackfoot and the Bitterroot represent some of the major branches and we've got the smaller tributaries out there where the leaves are."

The plan for the Clark Fork unit alone recommends well over 100 specific action items, but basically addresses three major points, Fredenberg said. First and foremost is habitat and the "four Cs" - cold water, clean water, complexity of habitat and connectivity of migratory corridors. A good portion of the plan recommends restoring those characteristics in bull trout country, he said.

A second major issue is threats from non-native species, such as lake trout and brook trout, Fredenberg said, which are closely related and provide conflicts for bull trout in a variety of ways.

"The third one is essentially connectivity, passage over dams but also culverts and many other passages through de-watered reaches, which is a big issue in the Bitterroot," he said. "Most of those small tributaries don't reach the river in a good part of the year and obviously the fish can't walk."

Bull trout in many cases are strong in the headwaters, "but some of those drainages no longer function as a connective unit with the Bitterroot like they once did," he said.

The draft plan seeks to maintain bull trout distribution within core areas, restore distribution where recommended, maintain stable or increasing trends in bull trout abundance, restore and maintain suitable habitat conditions and conserve genetic diversity and provide opportunity for genetic exchange, according to a fact sheet.

"The fundamental problem with bull trout is it's a very complex species that's been impacted by many, many different activities," Fredenberg said. "So depending on where you are in the landscape, the limiting factors can be very different from one site to the next."

In Montana, officials proposed critical habitat designations on about 3,319 miles of streams and 217,577 acres of lakes and reservoirs in northwestern Montana. As for what the critical habitat proposal means for Montana, "It's really basically not much," said Diane Katzenberger, Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman in Denver.

That's because the fish is already protected under the ESA, she said, so critical habitat designation would not have much effect on landowners beyond those measures already required when the bull trout was listed in 1998.

The agency agreed to set a schedule for designating critical habitat after reaching a court settlement with the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan. The ESA requires critical habitat designation, but the Fish and Wildlife Service had blamed the delay on budget constraints and said their priority was species recovery.

Fredenberg hoped mapping out critical habitat would help land managers like the Forest Service identify such areas and take them into account when making decisions.

A final decision on critical habitat for two recovery areas, including the Columbia River Basin, will come next year, after a public comment period.

A public comment period will begin following an official Federal Register notice, though a date for the notice has not been set. After that, comments on the critical habitat may be sent to:

John Young, Bull Trout Coordinator
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
911 NE 11th Street, Portland, Ore., 97232.

A 90-day comment period on the draft recovery plan will begin after a pending Federal Register notice, and comments can be sent to

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Snake River Basin Office
Attn: Robert Ruesink, Supervisor
1387 S. Vinnell Way, Room 368
Boise, Idaho, 83709;
faxed to 208-378-5262.

The bull trout proposals, including maps, can be viewed online.

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