Grayling Protections Reviewed Again in Montana

A Montana federal judge ordered the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to review whether Arctic grayling populations in the Ruby River deserve protection under the Endangered Species Act. USFWS is also being ordered to review a conservation agreement within the Big Hole River Valley to ensure the area’s grayling are being properly protected, according to Blair Miller of the Daily Montanan.

This is the latest in a long line of legal struggles about grayling in Montana. According to Miller’s reporting, this current court order is a result of U.S. District Court Judge Dana Christensen vacating a finding from USFWS back in 2020. By vacating that finding, USFWS has to conduct a new review to determine the status of grayling within the Ruby River.

Last year, Miller reports that two conservation groups, and a Butte, MT resident, sued the USFWS, essentially arguing that the service’s refusal to officially list grayling under the Endangered Species Act has caused harm to the species and needs to be finally settled in court.

At the crux of that argument is the USFWS’s reliance on a conservation agreement with private landowners in the Big Hole River Valley that was supposed to restore grayling to the Big Hole and its tributaries. According to the groups who sued the USFWS, those plans never panned out, and Judge Christensen agreed, hence the order to the USFWS to review grayling populations.

According to Miller, the first time Montana grayling were considered for coverage under the ESA was in 1982, and no significant progress has been made on their protection since then.

This is a complex issue, and Miller does a wonderful job breaking it down and providing a timeline of events. If you’re interested, you should read all of his reporting, which you can find here.