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Leaders Plan Bull Trout Session

Associated Press

Two top federal officials, spokesmen for conservation and industry interests and Idaho Republican Gov. Phil Batt have agreed to debate the future of efforts to restore Northwest bull trout populations at the first major conference of the Andrus Center for Public Policy.

“It is my desire to use the policy center and this conference to bring light to bear on an issue where too often there has been only heat,” former Democratic Gov. Cecil Andrus said.

The closing session of the two-day conference which begins June 1 will focus on where the campaign to preserve bull trout populations is headed and whether there is the possibility of consensus on a future course.

Batt, whose new administration has emphasized the need to ensure the economic and societal impacts of resource preservation are balanced against protecting specific species, will participate with Assistant Agriculture Secretary Jim Lyons, Assistant Interior Secretary George Frampton, an official from Trout Unlimited and a representative from the natural resource industry.

The conference also will feature Montana Gov. Marc Racicot and the fish and game directors of both Idaho and Montana.

Leading up to the final debate will be five sessions intended to lay out the scientific and policy issues involved in the debate over the bull trout, which is awaiting the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision on whether it should be protected under the Endangered Species Act.

Andrus declined to invite representatives from the conservation groups that initiated the legal action to put the bull trout on the endangered species list. He said they already have their minds made up and the conference is intended to “see if we can make some sense about the best way to protect and conserve the bull trout in the Pacific Northwest.”

The conference also will feature leaders of the American Fisheries Society and the Idaho Conservation League, Regional Director Mike Spear of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Upper Columbia Basin Project leader Steve Mealey.