The bull trout and its sprawling Western habitat still require Endangered Species Act-level care from miners, forest managers, dam operators and more, the Fish and Wildlife Service has concluded.
With a designated critical habitat spanning roughly 19,000 river miles and 488,000 acres of lakes and reservoir, the bull trout has long loomed large among ESA-listed species. In a new assessment, the Fish and Wildlife Service says the fish remains threatened and so still needs federal protections across its broad range.
“Considerable challenges remain to recover the bull trout,” the FWS stated, adding that “the science has indicated that an increase to current levels of bull trout conservation is needed to stabilize future viability, and remaining threats.”
The so-called five-year review and accompanying species status assessment identified climate change, the invasive spread of non-native fish and various threats to the bull trout’s habitat as among the enduring dangers facing the fish. Prior species reviews completed in 2008 and 2015 reached similar conclusions and kept the bull trout on the ESA list of threatened species that it first joined in 1999.
