Agency Will Make Trout Ruling Next Month

Conservation groups and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have reached a settlement that gives the agency until April 10 to decide on Endangered Species Act protections for westslope cutthroat trout.

The agency will either decide that cutthroat in Montana and Idaho deserve threatened status, decide that listing is warranted, but other species need protection first, or decide listing is not warranted.

Montana’s runs of westslope cutthroat are in trouble, biologists say, but Idaho’s are fairly healthy. State officials and anglers are concerned that Idaho could get caught in the net of protections for Montana trout.

The settlement resolves an August, 1999 lawsuit challenging the agency’s failure to respond within a year to a petition to list the cutthroat. The groups initially filed a petition in June 1997. The groups involved are American Wildlands, the Madison-Gallatin Chapter of Trout Unlimited, Clearwater Biodiversity Project, Montana Environmental Information Center, Idaho Watersheds Project and fly fisherman Bud Lilly.