Comments Needed on Gila Trout Recovery Plan

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has released a public draft of its revised Recovery Plan for the endangered Gila trout. The Gila trout is endemic to high elevation mountain streams in the Gila, Apache-Sitgreaves and Tonto National Forests in Arizona and New Mexico. It currently occurs in the Gila, San Francisco, and Verde river systems. It was listed as an endangered species in 1967 due to livestock grazing, road construction, water pollution, and hybridization with non-native trout.

The current recovery plan was completed in 1993. It includes criteria for downlisting the trout to a "threatened" species, but not for delisting. It also relies on an outdated, unecological strategy of creating and maintaining small trout populations in isolated headwater streams. Such small populations are prone to extinction and are incapable of supporting themselves, thus are forever dependent upon human intervention. The Center for Biological Diversity sued the Fish & Wildlife Service in 1998 to update the plan to include delisting criteria including the restoration of entire subwatersheds with interconnected tributaries capable of sustaining large, self-sustaining trout populations.

Please send comments to the Fish & Wildlife Service by 6-10-02 calling for cessation of the isolated headwater reintroduction strategy. Gila trout should be restored through entire subwatersheds protected from livestock grazing, exotic trout, and runoff from unnecessary roads.

Write to:
Gila Trout Recovery Plan
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
2105 Osuna NE, Albuquerque, NM 87113.