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Journal North: Home | Sports | Opinion | Obits | Entertainment
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Group Works To Make Sure Trout Stay Safe
By Raam Wong
Journal Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS, N.M. — Advocates for the imperiled Rio Grande cutthroat trout want to redouble efforts to protect the fish in New Mexico in order to keep it off the Endangered Species List.
The New Mexico Council of Trout Unlimited last week sent a letter to Gov. Bill Richardson asking that the state provide the Game and Fish Department with a budget increase of $250,000 annually that would be dedicated to additional efforts to protect and restore the fish.
"We believe that a concerted effort to recover the fish could help to keep it off the endangered species list, but we must act now," group chairman William Schudlich wrote. "This would not only protect this fish, but it would also avoid the serious economic harm to northern New Mexico that a listing would cause."
The letter comes in response to a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision earlier this year to designate the trout as a candidate for listing as endangered or threatened.
Federal protection would likely mean restrictions on grazing, logging, off-road vehicles and other activities that could further damage the cold-water streams the fish call home, inviting the sorts of pitched battles in northeastern New Mexico seen with other endangered species, such as the Mexican gray wolf in the southern part of the state. Listing would also mean the state would have to relinquish control over recovery efforts.
Human activities such as over-fishing, grazing and stocking of non-native fish have cornered the trout into less than 10 percent of its historic range.
Last summer, Game and Fish launched an ambitious effort to remove non-native fish and reintroduce the trout — New Mexico's state fish — to 150 miles of streams and 25 lakes in the Rio Costilla watershed over the next 10 to 15 years.
"We would like to get another project of that scope going," said Greg McReynolds, Trout Unlimited's Public Lands Initiative coordinator in New Mexico.
The requested $250,000 would be used to hire an additional Game and Fish biologist and seasonal workers, as well as project expenses.
"Avoiding the potential complications to water, grazing and recreational angling by keeping the fish from listing is well-worth the price," Schudlich wrote.
One project area being floated is the upper Pecos watershed above Rio Mora, but McReynolds said he hoped any extra funds would allow Game and Fish to identify the ideal location for additional restoration work.
McReynolds spoke here before a hearing Wednesday of the State Game Commission.
Fish biologist David Propst said Game and Fish is working to restore "core" populations of the cutthroat — those that are 99 percent genetically pure. Doing so ensures that the cutthroats being protected are the most fit to endure drought and other stresses in the environment.
Propst said both the cutthroat and the Gila trout, recently downgraded from endangered to threatened status, "evolved over eons, giving these individuals the particular equipment they need to survive in the environments they have left."
With the threat of listing the fish, commission vice chairman Dutch Salmon suggested that Game and Fish look at also trying to protect "conservation" populations of the trout — those that are at least 90 percent genetically pure.
"It's obvious if you lower your standards somewhat you get a better chance of avoiding listing," Salmon said, noting that the state has about 120 conservation populations of the cutthroat. "I think 100 percent purity is a proper goal, but what I wonder is if it should be an absolute requirement."
To that, McReynolds responded: "This is not the time to lower our standards. This is our time to redouble our efforts."