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On July 1, 2004, the Fish & Wildlife Service announced the availability of its “Draft Recovery Plan for the Coastal-Puget Sound Distinct Population Segment of Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus)” for public review and comment. Two separate volumes comprise the draft recovery plan for bull trout in this distinct population segment (DPS): the Puget Sound Management Unit is addressed in Volume I, and the Olympic Peninsula Management Unit is the focus of Volume II.
Bull trout are protected as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act throughout their U.S. range, which includes parts of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Nevada. There are five distinct population segments of bull trout in the lower 48 states. In Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula, the DPS is unique for several reasons. Besides containing the only anadromous forms of bull trout in the coterminous United States, there is an overlap in distribution with Dolly Varden, another species extremely similar in appearance to the bull trout, but distinct genetically.
The Coastal-Puget Sound DPS of bull trout encompasses all Pacific Coast drainages within the State of Washington, including Puget Sound. The Coastal-Puget Sound DPS is separated from other populations of bull trout by the Columbia River basin to the south and the crest of the Cascade Mountain Range to the east. This population segment is highly significant to the species as a whole, since all types of bull trout can live in the Puget Sound area, including the only known anadromous forms of bull trout in the coterminous United States.
The draft recovery plan contains recommendations for recovering bull trout in the Olympic Peninsula and Puget Sound areas. The overall recovery strategy for the Coastal-Puget Sound bull trout is to integrate with ongoing Tribal, State, local and Federal management efforts already underway at the watershed and regional scales, such as the Shared Strategy for Puget Sound (http://www.sharedsalmonstrategy.org/). This coordination will maximize the opportunity for complementary actions, eliminate redundancy, and make the best use of available resources for bull trout and salmon recovery.
Maps, fact sheets, photographs and other materials relating to the announcement may be found on the FWS Pacific Region’s Bull Trout website at http://species.fws.gov/bulltrout. Comments on the draft recovery plan must be received on or before October 29, 2004. For further information contact: Jeffrey Chan, Fish and Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Western Washington Fish and Wildlife Office, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey, Washington; telephone: (360) 753-9440. For Volume II, the Olympic Peninsula Management Unit, contact: Shelley Spalding, Fish & Wildlife Biologist, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Western Washington Fish & Wildlife Office, 510 Desmond Drive SE, Suite 102, Lacey, Washington; telephone: (360) 753-9440.
Federal Register, Volume 69, Number 126, Thursday, July 1, 2004, pp. 39950-39951 (8.46 KB text file or 52.8 KB Adobe™ Acrobat™ file).
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