Group threatens suit over denial of protections for Rio Grande cutthroat trout

A wildlife conservation group has put the federal government on notice that a decision last fall to deny Endangered Species Act protections to New Mexico’s struggling state fish, the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, will soon be greeted by a lawsuit. The Center for Biological Diversity announced Tuesday that it and other interested parties plan to file suit in 60 days against the Department of the Interior’s Secretary Sally Jewell in her oversight role for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The organization’s letter claims sections of the Endangered Species Act were violated when the agency decided last September that listing the cutthroat trout subspecies as endangered isn’t warranted. The move was an about-face from a May 2008 finding by the Fish and Wildlife Service that the listing was warranted but with lower priority than other threatened species. “There’s really nothing to indicate that it’s any better off than it was in 2008 or 2013,” Greenwald told The New Mexican on Tuesday. “There’s really no basis for their reversal. In fact, in the findings, they actually concluded that the trout is going to decline further under even the most optimistic scenarios.” Parties to the planned lawsuit hope that courts set aside last year’s decision and force the Fish and Wildlife Service to make a new determination based on the best available science, he said...more