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Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Committee members. My name is Gene Weller. I am a thirty plus year employee of the Nevada Division of Wildlife, and my current position is Deputy Administrator. I bring an added perspective to this hearing, as I was the local Fisheries Program Supervisor here in Elko when the whole bull trout controversy started back in the mid-1990’s. I believe I can bring a great deal of history to these proceedings. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
By
On August 11, 1998, as a direct result of work by Elko County to reconstruct the South Canyon road on the West Fork of the Jarbidge River, the Jarbidge River bull trout was listed as an “emergency endangered” species under the authority of the Endangered Species Act. The “emergency endangered” classification is a temporary one, normally used only when a species is in immediate peril of extinction. The Division of Wildlife disagreed with the emergency listing because the reach of the Jarbidge River immediately affected by the County’s actions is not critical to the survival of the Jarbidge River Distinct Population Segment of bull trout. In April 1999, when the “emergency endangered “ listing expired, the bull trout was listed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a “threatened” species. The Division of Wildlife, after careful consideration of the biological status of the species, opposed this listing because, in our opinion, the five criteria defined in the Act for listing a species are not supported. Those five criteria are:
1. The present or threatened destruction, modification, or curtailment of its habitat or range;
2. Over-utilization for commercial, recreational, scientific, or educational purposes;
3. Disease or predation;
4. The inadequacy of existing regulatory mechanisms; and
5. Other natural or manmade factors affecting its continued existence.
It is our contention, and has been since the listing occurred three years ago, that the Jarbidge River bull trout populations in their present or future states are not subject to the aforementioned threats; neither is the species imperiled unto extinction.
Virtually all the critical bull trout habitat in Nevada is located deep within the Jarbidge Wilderness Area where impacts by man are virtually non-existent. There are currently no grazing, mining, recreational or other land use impacts to bull trout populations within the wilderness area. More temperature tolerant adult Jarbidge bull trout are migratory, and seasonally inhabit lower reaches of the Jarbidge River such as the South Canyon Road site; however naturally higher water temperatures discourage year around bull trout habitation in these areas. Bull trout are a glacial relict, and they are dependent upon cold clear water between 40º to 51ºF, moderate stream gradient of less than 12%, and suitable stream flows of more than one cubic feet per second for spawning and rearing. These exacting habitat conditions are naturally limited in the Jarbidge River system in Nevada; however, Division studies show that where these habitat conditions prevail in the Jarbidge, bull trout exist in reasonable and viable numbers.
Bull trout are classified as a game fish in the State, but there is currently a regulation that prohibits harvest by fishermen. Fish disease testing in the drainage has revealed no harmful or threatening pathogens. The Division does not stock hatchery trout in the Jarbidge River. There are no competitive or hybridizing species present in the river. Evidence collected by the Division suggests there are a minimum of three genetic subpopulations in the Jarbidge system, which mitigates threats to the population from natural disasters, and insures genetic diversity within the population as a whole. Recent discoveries of “wandering” adult bull trout in less suitable reaches of the system support our confidence in the role of the Jarbidge River metapopulation to recolonize itself in the event of a stocastic event.
The definition of threats in the 1999 final rule cannot be supported. Even the rhetoric of the final rule contradicts itself by explaining that most of the identified threats to the persistence of bull trout are a problem in other portions of the bull trout’s range, but not in the Jarbidge. The Division has further argued that even if the threats defined in the listing rule were real, there are virtually no practical management actions which could be applied to remedy them, due to the protected nature of the existing populations and the near pristine condition of their primary habitats. There are no significant threats to the Jarbidge River Distinct Population Segment of bull trout. We currently have a listed species in the Jarbidge River with no conceivable means to delist it. Yet the Division and others are now obligated to divert significant resources to meaningless recovery efforts for the bull trout.
The Division has determined from extensive biological investigations before and after the final rule that bull trout in the Jarbidge River system are relatively well distributed throughout the system and are secure in those habitats. Historical data indicates bull trout have always had a limited presence in this system; however, where there is adequate habitat, primarily water temperature related, there are bull trout. Studies also document that current habitat conditions are infinitely better than those of recorded history when the Jarbidge River environs were subjected to severe degradation from livestock grazing and mining. The records conclusively show that the Jarbidge River system was severely over-grazed by livestock between the mid-1880's to about 1930. Gold was discovered in Jarbidge Canyon in 1909, with an influx of miners and other fortune seekers beginning to invade the area during the spring of 1910. The drainage was heavily prospected and mined for about the next 10 years with several successful mining and milling operations operating in the immediate vicinity of the river. During this period, living conditions for trout in the river were extremely poor, and trout survival and persistence was tenuous. If the fish could persist in the severely degraded habitat conditions of the late 1800's and early 1900's, they surely will flourish in the vastly improved conditions of today.
Today, habitat surveys conducted by the Division of Wildlife document good to excellent aquatic and riparian habitat conditions throughout the system. Areas with localized grazing problems are being addressed and are seldom in critical bull trout habitat anyway. As you can see from the distribution maps, the majority of focal or critical bull trout habitat (designated in dark blue) is located deep within the Jarbidge Wilderness. Mining is non-existent in the area. While sedimentation from road construction and maintenance are always an issue with fish survival, those areas in the Jarbidge system with road issues are outside the critical bull trout habitats. Even the role of migratory fluvial bull trout is not overtly jeopardized by sedimentation from roads because of timing. Fluvial bull trout typically migrate to cooler water in the spring when high flows mitigate the effects of sediments. Spawning and rearing take place during the fall and winter months in protected upstream reaches of streams devoid of roads and their impacts.
Ongoing fish surveys show fish populations including redband trout, mountain whitefish, suckers, dace and bull trout that are robust, well distributed, and stable or increasing relative to past surveys. This is consistent with, and supports, the data presented to the Fish and Wildlife Service at the time of the listing decision. The Division utilizes proven inventory methods and population estimation protocols. While not as statistically valid as research protocols, the methods used by the Division are considered totally adequate for management purposes, and they accurately portray the status and trend of fish populations. Competent, trained biologists of the Division of Wildlife have walked every mile of bull trout habitat in the Jarbidge River System. I would hazard to say we are the only ones who have done so. Division personnel are the most knowledgeable people on this planet about the bull trout in the Jarbidge. Our knowledge is formidable, not based on reading a report or a treatise on life history, but by walking the streams and handling the fish. From that practical knowledge base as well as our substantial data, Division biologists have maintained from the onset that bull trout populations of the Jarbidge are secure and continue to reside at low numbers in a disjunct distribution. That distribution represents the preferred flow and temperature criteria for year-around bull trout occupation. We are unaware of any declining or lost populations since we have been conducting surveys in the Jarbidge Drainage. I would remind you that Endangered Species listing criteria notes that “rarity in and of itself is not an adequate reason for listing.”
It is unfortunate that the South Canyon road issue and the bull trout are being considered together. There is little doubt that roads in the immediate vicinity of streams are characteristically deleterious to fish populations. Sedimentation, pollution and channelization normally associated with roads are real threats to fish populations. The Division of Wildlife has consistently opposed the redevelopment of the South Canyon road; however, our opposition is not based on the potential extirpation of bull trout, but the negative impact roads typically have on all aquatic fish and wildlife species. The redevelopment of the South Canyon road will not press the bull trout nor any other species in the river over the brink of extinction, nor is the threat of that redevelopment grounds for a listing of the bull trout as a threatened species under the auspices of the Endangered Species Act of 1973. We object strenuously to the improper and unethical use of bull trout as a surrogate.
In conclusion, the Division of Wildlife, based upon scientific data, holds that the Jarbidge River bull trout populations are now and were at the time of their listing, viable. They are not teetering on the brink of extinction because of the actions of man. Indeed, the protection already afforded bull trout by the Jarbidge Wilderness designation has probably mitigated most human influences, leaving the future of bull trout in the Jarbidge River system subject only to natural evolutionary processes. If the fish disappears in the unforeseeable future, it will be because as a glacial relict, it is going the way of the glaciers. Until then, bull trout are an important part of Nevada’s wildlife resources, and the Division of Wildlife stands ready to manage them accordingly, without the unnecessary protection of the Endangered Species Act.
Thank
you for this opportunity to testify. I
will gladly entertain your questions.
Support Materials:
1. The Status of Bull Trout in Nevada (Johnson, Weller 1994)
2. The Status of Bull Trout in Nevada (Johnson 1999)
3. Copy of Division letter to US Fish and Wildlife Service opposing the ESA listing of bull trout