This listing is going to be a big deal when we move onto federal lands. There are going to be some tough decisions on land management. But, he said, he also wants to hear that the state of Montana's bull trout restoration plan will be incorporated into the federal plan. People who want to talk about the past can. Babbitt also downplayed fears that the bull trout's listing could harm the recovery of already-listed salmon populations in the Northwest.
Bull trout are predators that eat salmon.
Restore the habitat, Babbitt advised, and the fish will find a way to live together - as they did for 10,000 years before their numbers crashed because of dam building, loss of spawning habitat to development, overfishing, mine pollution, stream sedimentation caused by road building and logging, and the introduction of nonnative fish species. The gold mine proposed upstream from Babbitt's Friday-morning visit to the Blackfoot is troubling, the Interior secretary said. But he said his agencies ''need to reserve judgment until an environmental impact statement is in'' on the proposed McDonald gold mine.