Bush believes in "build your own bass ponds", not coldwater fisheries

tu.org: over 2 dozen complaints by TU on the Bush administrations fly
fishing actions.



http://www.filter9.com/flash/america.html






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Bull trout protection drastically reduced
The Bush administration, which calls its decision a more realistic
approach, would cut to 10 percent proposed critical habitat
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
MICHAEL MILSTEIN
The Bush administration on Tuesday sharply scaled back plans to
reserve habitat for threatened bull trout, saying the wide-ranging
fish already have ample protection in the Northwest and the benefits
of adding more may not justify the cost.

The scale of the cutback is striking. Nearly two years ago, federal
biologists proposed designating as critical habitat 18,450 miles of
rivers and streams and 532,700 acres of lakes and reservoirs in
Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana.

But the final selections provided about 10 percent of that: 1,749
miles of streams and 61,235 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

The action reflects an increasingly narrow reading of the federal
Endangered Species Act by the administration, limiting the reach of
critical habitat for fish and wildlife nationally. Environmental
groups have often used critical habitat as legal leverage in the
Northwest to slow logging, mining, grazing and other land uses.