In 2000, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed to list the coastal cutthroat trout as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  Because the impacts on the citizens of Grays Harbor Countyhad not been taken into consideration prior to this decision, the Grays Harbor County Commission wrote a letter to USFWS on June 26, 2000, asking for joint lead or cooperating agency status under NEPA. 

The commission also wrote to the state supervisor for USFWSin Oregon asking why the coastal cutthroat trout was being considered for listing in Grays Harbor Countywhen information compiled by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) indicated the populations of coastal cutthroat may be threatened in the lower Columbia Basin but not in Grays Harbor.  The commission used the Freedomof Information Act to request specific information about the potential listing, including data specific to Grays Harbor about cutthroat populations, habitat and genetic information to indicate differences between one ESU and any other within Washington State.  In this letter the commission further requesteda public hearing in Grays Harbor County to consider the possible listing.

Through the diligent work of the Grays Harbor commissioners and a one-year moratorium on new listings, the coastal cutthroat trout listing was delayed until 2002. Review of research data in 2002 indicated sufficient numbers of cutthroat trout in Grays Harbor to deny the threatened status for this fish under the guidelines of the Endangered Species Act.

Read other successes:

Modoc County, California

Owyhee County, Idaho

Wallowa County, Oregon

 

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Last Updated 05/30/2007