Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Group wants Rio Grande sucker declared endangered; trout OK, feds say

The environmental group WildEarth Guardians Tuesday asked the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider declaring the Rio Grande sucker, a fish found in northern New Mexico, endangered. The fish, also found in Colorado, is threatened by human water use that is drying the region’s rivers, and dams fragment the fish’s habitat, making it harder for it to survive, the group argues in its 44-page petition. The Fish and Wildlife service now has 90 days to determine whether there is enough evidence to begin a full study of the fate of the fish. If the answer to that initial question is “yes”, the agency then has a year to make a decision on whether to formally declare the fish “endangered”, which could trigger legal protections for the fish. Also Tuesday, federal biologists said there’s no danger of the native Rio Grande cutthroat trout going extinct now or in the foreseeable future. The finding announced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a blow to environmentalists’ efforts to get the fish added to the list of endangered species. The Center for Biological Diversity argues that the trout are gone from nearly 90 percent of their range in New Mexico and Colorado and that populations are declining. The Fish and Wildlife Service says it reviewed the best available scientific and commercial information before deciding not to list the fish...more

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