Revised Draft Recovery Plan for the Coterminous United States Population of Bull Trout (Salvelinus confluentus)

Our most recent 5-year status review for bull trout was completed on April 8, 2008, and concluded that listing the species as “threatened” remained warranted range-wide in the coterminous United States. Based on this status review, in our most recent recovery report to Congress (USFWS 2012) we reported that bull trout were generally “stable” overall range-wide (species status neither improved nor declined during the reporting year), with some core area populations decreasing, some stable, and some increasing. Since the listing of bull trout, there has been very little change in the general distribution of bull trout in the coterminous United States, and we are not aware that any known, occupied bull trout core areas have been extirpated. Additionally, since the listing of bull trout, numerous conservation measures have been and continue to be implemented across its coterminous range. These measures are being undertaken by a wide variety of local and regional partnerships, including State fish and game agencies, State and Federal land management and water resource agencies, Tribal governments, power companies, watershed working groups, water users, ranchers, and landowners. In many cases these bull trout conservation measures incorporate or are closely interrelated with work being done for recovery of salmon and steelhead, which are limited by many of the same threats. The Service has compiled a comprehensive overview of conservation actions and successes since 1999 for bull trout in each recovery unit that is referenced in this revised draft recovery plan.