Bull trout recovery: Monitoring and evaluation guidance

Abstract

Bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) is an imperiled species of char native to the Pacific Northwest. Combinations of habitat degradation (e.g., Fraley and Shepard 1989), barriers to migration (e.g., Rieman and McIntyre 1995), and the introduction of non-natives (e.g., Leary et al. 1993) have led to the decline of bull trout populations across their native range (Rieman et al. 1997). Consequently, bull trout in the coterminous United States were listed as threatened, under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), on November 1, 1999 (64 FR 58910) (USFWS 2002). The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is charged with developing federal recovery plans for listed bull trout. Distribution, abundance, habitat, and genetics are all considered important characteristics of population viability and recovery (McElhaney et al. 2000). Consistent with this, four broad "recovery objectives" (USFWS 2002) have been established for bull trout under the USFWS draft Bull Trout Recovery Plan.

Citation

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) 2008. Bull trout recovery: Monitoring and evaluation guidance. Report prepared for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by the Bull Trout Recovery and Monitoring Technical Group (RMEG). Portland, OR. Version 1. 74 p.