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Thursday, September 09, 2004 - 12:00 AM [url "http://www.harktheherald.com/print.php?sid=33840"][Image: print.gif][/url] | [url "http://www.harktheherald.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Recommend_Us&file=index&req=FriendSend&sid=33840"][Image: friend.gif][/url]

Groups to file suit over Bonneville cutthroat

Mead Gruver THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


CHEYENNE, Wyo. -- Four environmental groups said Wednesday they will file suit over a decision not to put the Bonneville cutthroat trout under the Endangered Species Act.
The Biodiversity Legal Foundation filed in 1998 a request to list the subspecies as threatened. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced its decision not to list in October 2001.
A 60-day notice of intent to sue was submitted by the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance and Pacific Rivers Council.
The groups say they want the Bonneville cutthroat -- Utah's state fish -- listed because it inhabits less than 10 percent of its former range.
"That's been because of a combination of habitat destruction and introduction and spread of nonnative trout. Those threats continue to impact the populations," said Noah Greenwald, biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity.
The threats, according to the groups, include competition, predation and hybridization caused by other trout species, and habitat loss and degradation caused by grazing, water diversion and mining.
The Fish and Wildlife Service concluded in 2001 that listing was unneeded because 291 populations of Bonneville trout remain in 852 miles of streams and 70,059 acres of lakes.This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page C3.
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