KALISPELL, Mont. — Two environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against the federal government over the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to recover threatened bull trout.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Friends of the Wild Swan filed the lawsuit on April 19 in U.S. District Court in Oregon, accusing federal wildlife officials of not doing enough to help the trout and saying the recovery plan violates the Endangered Species Act with its inadequacies.
The agency released its Bull Trout Recovery Plan in September outlining actions to boost bull trout populations in six recovery units spread over Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and a tiny portion of Nevada.
A spokesman with FWS said the agency wouldn’t comment on pending litigation, but biologists with the federal agency have defended the plan as realistic.
