Environmental groups announced yesterday that they’re suing the Department of the Interior over its bull trout recovery plan.
The Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan say the Bull Trout Recovery Plan released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on September 28 doesn’t protect them to the extent required by the Endangered Species Act.
Bull trout are listed as threatened. Alliance for the Wild Rockies Executive Director Michael Garrity says bull trout are at risk because of logging in their habitat areas, along with culverts and dams, climate change and pollutants in the water.
"Instead of dealing with those problems they are just throwing up their hands and saying, well there is nothing we can do.”
The Fish and Wildlife Service says its recovery plan takes into account the threats and physical and biological needs of bull trout.
It says the ultimate goal is to ensure sufficient distribution and abundance of the fish so that protection under the Endangered Species Act is no longer necessary.
