Dubya Decides to Extinct Bulltrout in Idaho, Montana, and other NW States

[JoseCuervo]

Who one Earth would vote for a President that continues to try and end fishing and hunting? It is amazing how "steadfast" Dubya is to end Hunting and Fishing.

Federal plan would cut back bull trout habitat

By MATTHEW DALY
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON -- A recovery plan being finalized this week would sharply reduce the amount of federally designated critical habitat for the threatened bull trout in three Western states and eliminate federal requirements for such habitat in Montana.

The plan, to be announced today by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, would designate nearly 1,750 miles of streams and 61,235 acres of lakes and reservoirs in Oregon, Washington and Idaho as critical to the bull trout's survival under the Endangered Species Act.

No streams or lakes would be set aside by federal mandate in Montana.

The new figures represent about 10 percent of totals announced in November 2002, when the agency announced it planned to designate more than 18,000 miles of streams in the four states and 500,000 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

Environmental groups immediately denounced the plan, saying it could lead to the extinction of the bull trout in the Columbia and Klamath River basins.

"It looks like the Bush administration has totally given in to the timber and mining industries and ignored the benefits of clean drinking water for the public," said Michael Garrity, executive director of the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, a Montana-based environmental group that long battled the Fish and Wildlife Service over bull trout protection.

The latest recovery plan follows settlement of a lawsuit brought by the alliance and other environmental groups.

Craig Manson, assistant Interior secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, said yesterday the reductions in habitat designations were not as severe as they appeared. Instead, he said the figures represent a new approach that 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," Manson said.



Bull trout are actually not a trout, but a char, a member of the salmon family. The fish need clean, cold water to survive. They were designated a threatened species in 1998 after a seven-year battle by environmental groups.

Manson and other federal officials praised a Montana plan that they said could eventually lead to sufficient recovery of the species to enable bull trout to again be caught for sport.

"It may take a while, but that's the goal," Manson said, calling the Montana plan ambitious and effective.

Under the new recovery plan, federally designated critical habitat would drop to zero in Montana from about 3,300 stream miles and nearly 220,000 acres of lakes in 2002.

Reductions in other states were also significant.

In Washington, the new plan would designate 737 miles of streams and no lakes, down from 2,500 stream miles and 30,000 lake acres in 2002.

In Oregon, the new plan would designate 706 miles of streams and 33,939 acres of lakes, down from nearly 4,000 stream miles and 78,000 lake acres in 2002.

In Idaho, 306 miles of streams and 27,296 acres of lakes would be designated as critical habitat, down from nearly 9,000 stream miles and 205,000 lake acres in 2002.

Manson, the administration's point person on the Endangered Species Act, said critics should consider the full bull trout plan before attacking it.

For instance, the plan takes into account vast areas covered by the federal Northwest Forest Plan, which Manson called a "long-standing, ongoing effort that adequately protects the habitat the bull trout needs."

Similarly, the agency determined that Washington state's Forest Practices Act provided conservation benefits for the bull trout in Washington that are "far superior to the benefits provided by a critical habitat designation," Manson said.

"We are protecting bull trout," he said. "The Northwest Forest Plan protects bull trout, Washington state protects bull trout and the state of Montana protects bull trout."

But Garrity and other critics called the plan a giveaway to the timber and mining industries, which have supported President Bush and other Republican candidates.

 

[Ithaca 37]

EG, Good question. Amazing that so many hunters are in complete denial about what a disaster Dubya has been for wildlife!