Enviros prepare to sue FWS over westslope cutthroat decision

Environmentalists will challenge the Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to forego federal protection for the westslope cutthroat trout, a formerly abundant Pacific Northwest species whose Latin name, Oncorhynchus clarki lewisi, derives from the American explorers Lewis and Clark, who documented the black-speckled fish in their early 19th century journals.

American Wildlands, Western Watersheds Project, Montana Environmental Information Center, Clearwater Biodiversity Project and well-known Montana fly fisherman Bud Lilly all signed a 60-day notice of intent to sue FWS for failing to list the species as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act.

The groups charge that FWS did not follow the best available science when it determined that westslope cutthroat of 80 percent genetic purity can be viewed as pure cutthroats (Greenwire, Aug. 12, 2003). Protection advocates argue that the fish's primary threats -- hybridization, cross-breading and genetic dilution -- will lead to its demise unless FWS takes steps to protect it. Studies by a number of organizations, including the Pacific Rivers Council, have called for concrete steps to shore up pure westslope populations.

"The Fish and Wildlife Service cited our study, then bizarrely contradicted or ignored its most obvious and conclusive finding: that hybridization is a progressive threat that will continue to undermine native populations until a sincere and serious effort is made to address the problem," said Chris Frissell, a biologist with Pacific Rivers Council.

FWS officials were not available for comment, but upon release of the no-listing decision in August 2003, FWS biologist Lynn Kaeding said research shows that westslope of 80 percent genetic purity closely resemble pure westslope and have many of the same behavioral characteristics.

"We assume that if a fish looks like a westslope cutthroat trout, if it has the morphological characteristics of a westslope cutthroat trout, then it behaves like a westslope cutthroat trout," Keading said at the time.

Pure westslope trout now occupy between 6 and 22 percent of their historic range, according to biological estimates, while fish with at least 80 percent genetic purity occupy 43 percent of that range. The latter group is abundant, according to FWS, with stable, reproducing populations.

FWS also said in its 2003 no-listing decision that some genetically pure populations continue to thrive in habitats protected by natural barriers, effectively sealing them off from non-native trout.

But in this month's issue of Conservation Biology, leading trout specialists say hybrid cutthroat in fact behave very differently from pure fish and do not have certain genetic traits that have helped native cutthroats survive for thousands of years.

Also, in a letter dated July 2004, Frissell and two other scientists, Fred Allendorf of the University of Montana and Nathaniel Hitt of Virginia Polytechnic Institute, said FWS made an analytical mistake in setting the 80 percent purity standard and failed to fully consider the threats of hybridization.

"We can find no scientific rationale for the USFWS policy failing to recognize the importance of genetic diversity in WCT [westslope cutthroat trout] or the threats posed by introgression," the letter states.

The scientists also challenged FWS's contention that natural barriers alone would protect the remaining populations of pure fish from cross-breeding, saying such claims are merely a hypothesis. In their own tests, the scientists said they found that ecological barriers diminished hybridization only in a few cases, according to the letter.

Environmentalists first petitioned for federal protection of westslopes in 2000, but the request was denied by FWS on grounds that the fish looked and behaved like all other cutthroat. On appeal, a court ruled that FWS had to scientifically justify its inclusion of non-pure westslopes in its listing decision. FWS responded with the 80 percent purity standard now being challenged.

Westslope cutthroat once lived throughout 56,500 miles of Pacific Northwest rivers, as well as in British Columbia and Alberta. According to a journal entry written on June 13, 1805, by the explorer Meriwether Lewis, the trout later named for Lewis and colleague William Clark ranged from 16 to 23 inches in length and "precisely resemble our mountain or speckled trout in the form and the position of their fins, but the specks on these are of a deep black instead of the red or gould colour of those common to the U' [sic] States."