Groups plan to sue agency for failure to reinstate critical habitat protections for Steelhead trout.

On 7/31/02 The Center for Biological Diversity, the Pacific Rivers Council and 19 other environmental and fishing groups notified the National Marine Fisheries Service of their plan to sue the agency over its failure to reinstate federal protection of critical habitat, spanning more than 150 river basins in California, Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, for 19 species of salmon and steelhead listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The conservation groups also stated their intent to sue the agency for failing to designate critical habitat for Northern California steelhead trout.

The NMFS withdrew the critical habitat designations in April 2002 in a sweetheart deal, settling litigation by the National Association of Home Builders and other development interests over the analyses of economic impacts. The settlement put no interim protections in place, leaving these fish and their vital habitats in peril from logging, grazing, road-building and sprawl.

Critical habitat designations for these salmon and steelhead trout also provide some important habitat protection for several highly imperiled native trout, because the critical habitats overlap with habitats for coastal cutthroat, bull, westslope cutthroat, and redband trout http://www.westerntrout.org/trout/maps/historic/historic_ranges.jpg. Although all of these native trout have undergone severe declines due to rampant habitat destruction, the Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to list any of these trout except bull trout under the ESA. Even bull trout, listed in 1998, in response to litigation, still lack critical habitat protection four years after listing, due to agency intransigence and foot-dragging.

Other groups on the notice are the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen's Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Oregon Natural Resources Council, Native Fish Society, Environmental Center of San Luis Obispo, South Yuba River Citizens League, California Save Our Streams Council, Umpqua Watersheds, Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, San Diego Trout, Friends of Placer County Communities, Greenspace, The Cambria Land Trust, Alameda Creek Alliance, Fly Fishers Club of Orange County, California Wilderness Coalition, Turtle Island Restoration Network, Ventana Wilderness Alliance, and California Trout; they are represented by Earthjustice.