State, federal officials to meet over bull trout

Tuesday, July 27, 1999 | 12:32 p.m.

"We're a bit frustrated and have asked the Nevada Attorney General's Office to look into the possibility of legal action," Terry Crawforth, state wildlife director, told the Elko Daily Free Press. "In that process the Fish and Wildlife Service offered we could talk to their attorneys.

"The real frustration is, do you spend your money on lawyers or do you spend money on the ground?" Crawforth said.

State and federal officials toured South Canyon Road and the Jarbidge River last week. The road became the focus of the dispute between Elko County and federal officials when the trout's listing halted the county from rebuilding the washed out road to a campground along the river in northeast Nevada.

U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., asked the Forest Service to look at building a road to the Snowslide Trailhead without affecting the bull trout, said Ben Siminoe, U.S. Forest Service assistant forest supervisor.

Siminoe said the Forest Service instead will consider a trail above the river, after a working group determined a road for motorized vehicles would be too damaging to habitat.

"We are just as concerned about the redband population here as we are about bull trout," Siminoe told the delegation of 35 state and federal officials on the tour. "There is really a terrific redband fishery, and we're concerned about that."

Rich Haskins, fisheries supervisor with the Nevada Division of Wildlife, said the agency will conduct another survey of bull trout populations, possibly setting traps to determine migratory periods.

The Jarbidge bull trout population, which was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in April, prefer water temperatures below 51 degrees and spawn during the fall in the headwaters, Haskins said.

A lot of the fishing on the Jarbidge River occurs when bull trout are upstream.

"The odds of the average angler catching a bull trout down here is slim," Haskins said.

Al Pfister, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service assistant field supervisor in Reno, said the bull trout has been on the watch list since 1995. He said the threatened status is less restrictive than endangered, which permits no fishing.

Still, the Nevada Division of Wildlife disagrees with the designation.

"We as an agency respectfully disagree with U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," said NDOW Regional Director Larry Barngrover said. "We did not think and we do not think the species needs to be listed."

Pfister, however, replied that the bull trout's long-term viability was at stake.