Restoration efforts boost cutthroat trout population

POCATELLO, Idaho – Conservation efforts in southeastern Idaho have helped improve populations of Bonneville cutthroat trout in the Bear River system, fishery managers say.

Dave Teuscher, a regional fisheries manager with the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, said more restrictive fishing regulations that began in 2006 have helped protect the fish.

He also said installing fish screens to keep trout out of irrigation diversions has helped.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declined to give the species federal protection, saying Bonneville cutthroat populations have increased in the last three decades and are widely distributed across parts of Idaho, Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.

Bonneville trout are found in 35 percent of their historic habitat and occupy more than 2,300 miles of stream in those four states, according to the agency.

“Despite all the things we’ve done to mess up the Bear River, the Bonneville cutts have persisted,” said Chris Hunt, a spokesman for Trout Unlimited. “They are a hardy fish. Is the fish recovered enough that it shouldn’t be considered (for federal protection)? Probably not. On the whole, the ruling is sensible, but it’s certainly a species that we need to keep an eye on.”

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s review of the cutthroat examined threats from land-use practices, hybridization, nonnative predators and climate change. The agency found that none of the threats warranted listing the Bonneville trout as a threatened or endangered species.

A notice of the decision was published Tuesday in the Federal Register. The government was first asked to list the species as threatened in 1998.