Gila trout being downlisted
 

On 8/9/06 12:49 PM, in article , "Jonathan Cook"
wrote:

I don't know if this'll make the news anywhere, but the
Gila trout is being downlisted from endangered to threatened,
which means the feds and state can work together to open
up some areas to fishing. This is great since several major
watersheds in the Gila Wilderness are currently closed
to fishing.

Tim may not appreciate it, but it will probably be pure C+R
fishing for a while. Still, it's well documented that
allowing the presence of (and limited use by) an actively
concerned community actually helps recovery efforts because
it discourages abuse and poaching.

The announcement can be found in the Federal Register:

http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi...14400525283+0+
0+0&WAISaction=retrieve

And as PDF from the regional FWS page:

http://www.fws.gov/ifw2es/NewMexico/

I haven't even seen it mentioned on any of the local
enviro-groups news yet. One of our fish and wildlife
professors (retired last year) was involved in the
Gila trout recovery for 30 years, and he sent out email
to some of us about it.

Thanks for posting the update, Jon. When we went around on this last time,
I ended up doing a fair amount of reading about the Gila. RD gave me a lot
of crap about reading the Federal Register but there was some excellent
information in the entry from that time (70 FR 24750), as there appears to
be in this new entry- actually, much of it is probably the same stuff. But
I'll add this document to my "Gila" file. I hope it is the correct decision
and that the fish can thrive. And maybe one day I'll even make it down
there to your corner of the world!

Bill