In a Federal Register Notice today , the US Fish and Wildlife Service rejected a petition for Endangered Species Act protection for the Great Basin Redband Trout. The rejection was based on a 1999 survey by ODFW showing that the numbers of trout in the six basins were higher than earlier recorded. The original petition was filed by Oregon Natural Desert Association, Oregon Trout, Native Fish Society, and the Oregon Council of Trout Unlimited. Redband trout is the interior form of rainbow trout, occurring east of the Cascade Range from northern California to northern British Columbia.
Rainbow trout is the coastal form of the species.
Most remaining populations of Great Basin redband trout were classified by ODFW as depressed or close to extinction. It is unfortunate that it takes an ESA petition and a lawsuit to force federal and state agencies to undertake a comprehensive assessment of populations of this once wide-spread species. The big danger would be during drought years. The recent survey found that most of the fish were in the headwaters of streams. ODFW biologists only surveyed streams where redband were known to exist, not those streams from which they had already disappeared.