Questions and Answer For the Bull Trout Draft Recovery Plan ( PDF File 106 kb)
Following nearly three years of collaboration with more than 120 stakeholders, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today released its draft recovery plan for three distinct population segments of bull trout and proposed critical habitat for two of those populations.
The draft recovery plan contains recommendations for recovering bull trout in the Columbia River Basin, the Klamath River Basin and the St. Mary-Belly River Basin. Critical habitat is being proposed only in the Columbia and Klamath river basins at this time.
In January 2002, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan reached a court settlement establishing a schedule for the proposal of critical habitat for bull trout. The two environmental groups sued the Service for not designating critical habitat after listing bull trout in 1998 and 1999 as threatened throughout its range in the lower 48 states. At the time, the Service had been unable to complete critical habitat determinations because of budget constraints.
In October 2003, critical habitat proposals will be made for the St. Mary-Belly River (Montana), Jarbidge (Nevada), and Coastal-Puget Sound (Washington) distinct population segments of bull trout. A draft recovery plan also will be released then for the Jarbidge and Coastal-Puget Sound populations.
Bull trout are protected as a threatened species, under the Federal Endangered Species Act, throughout their U.S. range, which includes parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. Distinct population segments are groups of organisms from the same species that occupy geographically discrete areas. There are five distinct population segments of bull trout in the lower 48 U.S. states.
