Bull Trout Alarm Won’t Hurt Rights, Agency Says Don’t Fear Undo Pressure From Officials, Fish And Wildlife Service Reports

The listing of bull trout as a threatened species in Idaho is not likely to trash property and water rights or fishing privileges, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials say.

Never mind studies indicating the fish have declined by 75 percent in the Little Lost River drainage over eight years or that introduced brook trout are edging out the natives or some stream-side property has been grazed to the point of damaging the cold-water habitat.

Unlike salmon or grizzly bears, a threatened designation for bull trout in the Columbia Basin probably means heightened attention to a state recovery plan already in place, managers say.

“The average 3-acre homeowner isn’t going to have any problems unless he’s out there spearing bull trout,” said Doug Zimmer, spokesman for Fish and Wildlife in Olympia, where a plan is being drafted to protect the fish throughout the region.

Nor is the average rancher, he said.

“I don’t see the feds coming on private lands and saying, ‘You’re going to by-God do this.”’

That is because the agency has other species to protect and believes the states have a good start toward improving habitat, Zimmer said.

“A lot of the recovery plan will just say, ‘Yep, we need to do this, we’ve been doing it for three years.”’

Though private land may be safe from major changes, a federal judge on Friday ruled that national forest management plans need work. U.S. District Judge Robert Jones ruled one of three Northwestern fish conservation strategies is inadequate for bull trout, and he may order changes within 45 days.

But Fish and Wildlife expects few changes in Idaho because measures already in effect to protect salmon should suffice for bull trout.

Idaho’s plan works on a willing-participant basis to get landowners to improve their stream-side property, among other cooperative measures.

The bull trout requires cold, clear water. It has suffered as activities along streams reduced shade and increased silt in streambeds.

Montana environmental groups sued to force Fish and Wildlife to speed recovery plans. The agency agreed to issue a proposed rule by June 10.