(Note: Speaking of 'bull,' this is more evidence of the ESA being used to leverage resource providing and humans living anywhere but in 'smart growth' and 'high density housing' areas.)

November 14, 2002

By Todd Kepple, City Editor

1-541-885-4422 or 1-800-275-0982

tkepple@heraldandnews.com

To submit a Letter to the Editor: heraldandnews@heraldandnews.com  (the Herald and News only prints letters originating from Klamath Basin addresses)

Several streams in the Upper Klamath Basin are proposed for designation as critical habitat for threatened bull trout, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced today.

The agency also released a draft recovery plan for bull trout in the Klamath Basin, and announced a public meeting to be held in January in Klamath Falls to gather comments on the proposals.

The Klamath Basin is on the southern fringe of the natural range for bull trout, which is found throughout the Pacific Northwest. The wildlife service also released today a list of critical habitat areas for the entire Columbia River Basin, including the Upper Deschutes River.

The critical habitat list in the Upper Klamath Basin includes 18 streams above Upper Klamath Lake, seven streams in the Sycan River subbasin, and 17 streams in the Upper Sprague River subbasin.

About 296 miles of streams in the three subbasins are proposed for designation as critical habitat for the fish that was granted protection under the Endangered Species Act in 1998.

Also proposed as critical habitat is 33,939 acres of lake and wetland habitat in the Sycan Marsh.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said 55 percent of the streams listed in the Upper Klamath Basin are on federal land, with the remainder on private land. Measures to protect the fish would apply only to the streams, and not to adjacent lands.

Agency officials said private landowners would not be affected by designation of critical habitat on their land unless they were involved with federally funded projects that would affect the streams.

Steve Williams, director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, emphasized that the list of critical habitat and the recovery plan are still subject to public review and revision by the agency.

“The service will be taking a close look at this proposal in the next few months to evaluate the appropriateness of our approach,” Williams said this morning.

The agency will consider the economic impact of its proposals for critical habitat, he said.

“We will be considering whether all the areas in the proposal are essential to the conservation of the species,” Williams said. “An in-depth economic analysis will be completed in March, and public comment will be reopened at that time.”

The proposals will also be subject to peer review by scientists, he said.

The list of critical habitat areas was developed with involvement from state agencies, tribal interests, industry, private sector biologists, local stakeholders and other federal agencies, Williams said.

Bull trout are found in about 21 percent of the species’ historic range in the Klamath Basin, according to the wildlife service.

“These known remaining local populations are considered to be quite low in abundance,” the agency states in the proposed recovery plan. “They are highly isolated from one another as a result of natural and human-caused conditions, and are at substantial risk of extirpation due to natural disturbance cycles, random events and other risk factors.”

Human impacts to the species include fragmentation of populations by of dams and diversions, degregation of habitat, and introduction of nonnative species. City Editor Todd Kepple can be reached at 885-4422, (800) 275-0982, or by e-mail at tkepple@heraldandnews.com .

Critical habitat streams list

Following is a list of streams proposed for listing as critical habitat for bull trout in the Upper Klamath Basin: Above Upper Klamath Lake

Agency Lake, Crane Creek, Crystal Creek, Fourmile Creek, Fourmile Slough, Recreation Creek, Sevenmile Creek, Sevenmile Canal, West Canal, Cherry Creek, Rock Creek, Threemile Creek, Annie Creek, Crooked Creek, Fort Creek, Middle Fork Annie Creek, Wood Creek, Sun Creek. Upper Sprague River

Boulder Creek, Dixon Creek, North Fork Sprague River, unnamed stream off Dixon Creek, Sheepy Creek, Gearhart Creek, Hole Creek, Nottin Creek, School Creek, Dead Cow Creek, Gold Creek, Deming Creek, Brownsworth Creek, Camp Creek, Corral Creek, South Fork Sprague River, Leonard Creek.

Sycan Marsh

Sycan River, Calahan Creek, Long Creek, Coyote Creek, Boulder Creek, Rifle Creek, South Fork Sprague River.

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