In an out-of-court settlement with environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has promised to make the designation of critical habitat for bull trout a priority in the coming year.
The commitment gives a green light to Fish and Wildlife Service biologists throughout the Northwest to finish the designation of more than 18,000 miles of streams in Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon as "critical" to bull trout.
"The Service regards the designation of critical habitat for bull trout a priority and is committed to doing everything possible to ensure they get completed by the agreed-upon deadlines," Gary Frazer wrote from his Washington, D.C., office.
A final map showing the species' critical habitat in the Columbia and Klamath river basins will be ready by Sept. 21, 2004, according to the settlement released Wednesday by the environmental litigants.
Critical habitat for the Coastal-Puget Sound, Jarbidge and St. Mary-Belly River populations will be designated by June 15, 2004.
Every three months until then, the Fish and Wildlife Service will provide a report on its progress to both the environmentalists and U.S. District Court in Oregon.
The FWS "intends to make its best efforts" to allocate enough money to meet the deadlines, the decree said.
If money is somehow not available, the agency will notify all parties in writing.
But officials also acknowledged "that the Fish and Wildlife Service has a legal obligation to designate critical habitat for the bull trout" and that the public interest is best served by avoiding further litigation.
The settlement and letter represent the strongest-ever commitment by federal officials to bring back healthy populations of bull trout regionwide, said Mike Bader, a consultant to Alliance for the Wild Rockies who has - since 1992 - pressured the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect the native char.
"This is a bright green light," he said. "The agency is making a very strong commitment to bull trout, and they're making it in writing."
Bull trout are protected as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act, having disappeared from half of their historic range.
Just 6 percent of the remaining populations are stable or strong, and the species is extinct in California.
Environmental groups pushed for seven years to win protection for bull trout, then filed suit to insist that the species' habitat be restored and protected as well.
The Endangered Species Act requires the government to designate critical habitat at the time a species is listed, or to do additional research and issue the designation within a year of the listing.
The government listed the Columbia and Klamath river populations of bull trout as threatened on June 10, 1998. All bull trout in the lower 48 states are now protected, but none of the habitat needed for their conservation has been so designated.
Last year, the Fish and Wildlife Service released a draft plan proposing designation of 18,468 miles of streams and 537,722 acres of lakes and reservoirs regionwide as essential to the future of bull trout.
But the proposal was incomplete and never finalized, so the environmental groups continued to push the government.
When complete, the designation of critical habitat "will give people a water map showing how we are going to recover bull trout, and how we will restore the species' habitat," Bader said.
It will be the largest-ever habitat designation for any threatened or endangered species, covering most of the rivers, streams and lakes in western Montana, Idaho, Washington and Oregon.
"Eighteen thousand miles," Bader said. "That's twice the length of the entire Wild and Scenic River System."
Once water is designated as critical habitat, land managers can take no action that would adversely affect that habitat, he said. And adversity can come from a lengthy list of activities: logging, mining, subdivision, grazing, road building and other development.
But Bader said AWR and Friends of the Wild Swan believe the Endangered Species Act "is a positive thing. It gives us money before it's too late, and creates a lot of funding."
In fact, Bader said he considers bull trout "an economic indicator species" because of the jobs that will be created by the many stream restoration projects likely in the years to come.
And the ultimate goal - fishable populations of bull trout - would be a boon to outfitters throughout the Northwest, he said.
"You can't even try to catch a bull trout in most places now," Bader said. "Just imagine the value to outfitters of being able to take people to waters that have big fish. It's huge."
The environmental groups agreed to give the FWS another year to finish its habitat-designation work because they believed the extra time will provide a better product.
Despite the continuing litigation, bull trout conservation has moved forward over the past decade, he added. "A lot of good things have happened along the way."
Bull trout were the obvious native trout species to focus on because they are the "king of the trout species," Bader said.
"They migrate the farthest," he said. "They require the best habitat. By bringing back bull trout, we will bring back a lot of other species."
"This is our opportunity to look at entire watersheds and in unison decide to make them better," Bader said. "I don't know that we'll ever have that opportunity again."
Reporter Sherry Devlin can be reached at 523-5268 or at sdevlin@missoulian.com
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