Montana environmental groups are suing the federal government for not protecting the threatened bull trout. Friends of the Wild Swan and Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed the lawsuit Wednesday in Oregon District Court.
The suit accuses the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Bull Trout Recovery Plan of being insufficient in protecting the native fish.
That plan was released last September.
An agency spokesperson Brent Lawrence said the agency could not comment on pending litigation.
But Lawrence said that if the threats to bull trout are efficiently managed, as outlined in the recovery plan, "we expect that bull trout populations in each recovery unit will respond accordingly, reflecting the biodiversity principles of resiliency, redundancy and representation."