I hope you don't mind if I start off with a nice little disclaimer. OK, I work for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which administers the Endangered Species Act as concerns most plants and animals that live most of their lives on land, in freshwater, or in the air.
The National Marine Fisheries Service administers the Endangered Species Act for things that live most of their lives in the sea, or in estuaries.
Of course, it's never really that simple.
For example, when a sea turtle is in the sea it calls on the National Marine Fisheries Service for protection, but when that turtle is on land it has to call the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Anyway, my point is that my agency does not administer the Endangered Species Act for salmon - the National Marine Fisheries Service does. However, we do administer the Act for bull trout, which I'll mention in more detail below.
I thought you should know this since my little essay here deals with the Endangered Species Act status of fish in the Chehalis Basin.
In other words, the tough questions concerning salmon should be directed at the National Marine Fisheries Service.
And the tough questions about bull trout should go to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. (If you call me, I'll be glad to transfer you to someone who really knows bull trout.) Actually, the following web sites are good places to get Endangered Species Act information.
National Marine Fisheries Service: http://www.nwr.noaa.gov/
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/
Washington State: http://www.wa.gov/esa/
So, how are our Chehalis River fish currently viewed under the Endangered Species Act? So far none of them are listed as threatened or endangered, but, of course, there's more to the story. Perhaps I should start with some definitions.
Listed Species - This is a species, or population, that has been designated as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. An endangered species may be in danger of becoming extinct in all or a significant portion of its range, while a threatened species is at risk of becoming endangered.
Proposed Species - This is a species, or population, for which sufficient information is available to list it as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Once a species is proposed for listing, the agency in question has up to one year to gather additional data, and to consider other measures before the final decision is made to list, or not list, the species.
Candidate Species - This is a species, or population, for which there is sufficient information on biological status and threats to propose them as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
This "candidate status" is kind of an early warning system that says, "Hey! If things continue the way they are, this species may become at risk of going extinct, and we may have to propose it for Endangered Species Act listing." It's high time for us to really get moving on conservation efforts when a species becomes a candidate.
Evolutionarily Significant Unit (ESU) - (By the way, don't get any ideas - "The Evolutionarily Significant Unit" would be a lousy nickname for a baseball player.) Anyway . . . Most Endangered Species Act listings are for an entire species, but the National Marine Fisheries Service has divided pacific salmon into distinct units called ESUs. An ESU is basically a population that shows significant genetic continuity within the population, and is substantially isolated from interbreeding with other populations.
As of April 5, 1999 there are two proposed fish and one candidate fish in the Chehalis Basin. The candidate is the coho salmon, and the proposed fish are the coastal (sea-run) cutthroat trout and the bull trout.
Chehalis coho salmon are part of the Lower Columbia River/Southwest Washington ESU.
Basically, the National Marine Fisheries Service is watching this ESU, and its status is summarized as: "the ESU is not presently in danger of extinction but is likely to become so in the foreseeable future if present conditions continue." (This looks like a good place to plug my program.) The Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program, and other programs like it, are working to protect and restore habitat for salmon so that "present conditions" can be improved, making an Endangered Species Act listing less likely. Support your local habitat restoration program!
An ESU for coastal cutthroat trout, extending from the Chehalis River to the lower Columbia River, was proposed for listing on April 5, 1999. (To be honest with you, I am writing this on April 2nd, but a press release today states that the National Marine Fisheries Service will publish the proposal in the Federal Register on the fifth. You can read all about it at the National Marine Fisheries Service web site I gave above.) So one year from now we will have the final determination on an Endangered Species Act listing. Although the National Marine Fisheries Service conducted the review that lead to the proposed listing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service may take over administration of the listing because coastal cutthroat trout actually spend much more time in freshwater than in the sea.
Now for the bull trout. Ah, yes . . . the bull trout. Well, for starters, the bull trout is not actually a trout (for that matter, it's not a bull either). It is in the same family as salmon and trout, but it is classified as a char. We have two species of native char in our region - the Dolly Varden and the bull trout. It's pretty safe to say that YOU CANNOT TELL THEM APART BY LOOKING AT THEM. Native char have been found in the streams of the southern Olympic Mountains in the lower Chehalis Basin, but the genetic analysis has not been done to determine whether they are bull trout or Dolly Varden. By the way, we also have a non-native char that has been introduced to our area - the brook trout.
Most fishermen I've spoken with say that they have never seen a bull trout/Dolly Varden while fishing in the Chehalis Basin. One reason may be that bull trout need cold, clean water and would likely exist in more pristine stream reaches that might be difficult for fishermen to get to. Bull trout get really big, and fisherman have seen them in the 20-pound range in some rivers.
The final Endangered Species Act listing determination for bull trout is due this June. The Chehalis, or parts of the Chehalis, may be included in the listing, if there is one. If you really want to know about the proposed bull trout listing, you can search the Federal Register on the internet at: http://www.gpo.ucop.edu/search/fedfld.html Choose "Federal Register, 1998" and simply type in "bull trout" and click on "Run Search." When you get the results, choose the one that contains "June 10, 1998; Proposed Rule" in the description. Or you can call me and I'll mail you a copy.
So what happens if one of these fish is listed as threatened or endangered? I don't know. We may be able to get an idea by watching what happens on Puget Sound and Hood Canal with their recent salmon listings. In any event, let's hope that it never becomes necessary to declare any Chehalis Basin fish threatened or endangered.
You can call Mike Kelly at 360-753-9560 if you have any questions, would like more information, or would like to complain about (or receive an explanation of) that dumb baseball player joke.
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