The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the Bonneville cutthroat trout, a fish found primarily in Utah and parts of Wyoming, Idaho and Nevada in the Bonneville Basin, does not warrant listing as a threatened or endangered species under the Endangered Species Act.
In February 1998, the Biodiversity Legal Foundation petitioned the Service to list the Bonneville cutthroat trout as threatened throughout its range and designate its occupied habitat as critical habitat under the Act. A species is designated as threatened when it is likely to become endangered throughout all or a significant portion of its range.
Although the Service found the petition contained substantial information that warranted further examination of the status of the species, a comprehensive review revealed that there are 291 populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout that currently inhabit 852 miles of stream habitat and 70,059 acres of lake habitat. Biologists also believe they may find Bonneville cutthroat trout populations in streams which have not been recently surveyed or explored. Furthermore, genetic research continues to determine that many populations deemed in the past to be hybrid fish are in fact genetically pure Bonneville cutthroat trout. Overall, the Service found that viable, self-sustaining Bonneville cutthroat trout populations remain widely distributed throughout the historic range of the fish and are being restored or protected where feasible.
Biologists believe Bonneville cutthroat trout historically occupied most of the stream, river and lake systems and their principal tributaries in the Bonneville Basin. Over the past 150 years, the species has experienced a decline due to fishing and timber harvest, dewatering, habitat destruction, and introduction of nonnative fish that competed with the species and gave rise to hybrid populations. Some biologists speculated the Bonneville cutthroat trout was extinct in its pure form by the mid-1900s.
"On-the-ground restoration and enhancement activities conducted by our Federal, State, and Tribal partners have become the cornerstone for Bonneville cutthroat trout conservation," said Ralph Morgenweck, the Service
