The bull trout is disappearing, says the U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, but the agency cannot protect the trout as an
endangered species because it doesn’t have the money. In a ruling
June 7, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that the listing of the
rare fish was “warranted but precluded.” Doug Zimmer, an Olympia,
Wash., agency spokesman, told the Spokane Review that 80 plants and
animals are in desperate straits in the trout’s Northwest range and
deserve more aid than the bull trout. That reasoning infuriated
environmentalists. Arlene Montgomery of Friends for the Wild Swan
said, “Basically they’re saying that yes, this fish is going
extinct and no, we won’t do anything to save it.” Due mostly to
sediment build-up from logging and road construction, the bull
trout is already extinct in California and has disappeared from
many Northwest streams and lakes. On June 15, the Alliance for the
Wild Rockies, Friends of the Wild Swan, and the Swan View Coalition
said they will sue Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt and the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service.
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Coming up dry.
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