MISSOULA, Mont.— A federal district court in Montana ruled Tuesday afternoon that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service erred in denying Montana’s Arctic grayling population protection under the Endangered Species Act. Tuesday’s decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project and Butte resident Pat Munday, represented by Earthjustice.
In its ruling, the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana accused the Service of relying on efforts to restore the grayling population in the Ruby River despite the lack of evidence that the population was viable. The agency also cited a conservation agreement to protect the last surviving river population, found in a short stretch of the Big Hole River, even though the agreement expires in 2026.
“Promises to restore grayling to more rivers than the Big Hole, where they are threatened with extinction, have not been fulfilled, so this ruling is an important victory,” said Noah Greenwald, director of endangered species at the Center for Biological Diversity. “It is long past time for the Fish and Wildlife Service to protect these beautiful, precious fish under the Endangered Species Act.”
As the court noted in its opinion, Montana’s 1995 restoration plan promised “at least five stable, viable populations distributed across at least three major river basins.” Instead, the state has only undertaken restoration activities in the Ruby River and has still not established a viable population there.
The Arctic grayling in Montana was once found throughout the upper Missouri River basin above Great Falls, but today its native populations are limited to short stretches of the Big Hole River, the Ruby River, Ennis Reservoir on the Madison River, and Centennial Lakes. All of these populations are threatened for a variety of reasons, including the cessation of irrigation, which reduces flow and increases water temperatures, climate change, and habitat degradation from livestock grazing, roads, and agriculture.
“This decision is welcome news for Montana’s Arctic grayling, a uniquely beautiful fish whose last native population in the lower 48 states survives in only a small part of our state,” said Patrick Kelly, Montana & Washington director of the Western Watersheds Project. “After decades of puzzling resistance to listing the Arctic grayling — including multiple legal settlements and previous court defeats — the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must now follow the law and base its decision on the best available science, free from economic and political pressure. As climate change continues to wreak havoc on Montana’s rivers and streams, the Arctic grayling cannot afford any further delays.”
The Service first recognized the need to protect the grayling in 1982. In 1991, the agency was asked to protect the species, leading to a 1994 finding that protection was warranted but not possible due to other priorities. The grayling was considered a candidate for endangered species designation until 2014, when the agency reversed course and denied protection based on the state conservation agreement and allegedly increased populations. Conservation groups successfully challenged that denial, but in 2020 the Service persisted and denied protection again. Tuesday’s court ruling overturned that decision.
“This decision follows a similar opinion from the 9th Circuit in 2018, which found that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had no basis for denying protection to the dwindling grayling population in the upper Missouri River watershed,” said Sean Helle, one of the Earthjustice attorneys representing the case. “We urge the Service to add the Arctic grayling to the Endangered Species Act list so it has a chance at long-term survival.”
Grayling have been introduced to more than a dozen lakes outside their natural range, but the lake-dwelling fish offer little safety to the native population of this primarily river-dwelling fish, as studies have shown that they cannot survive in flowing water.
“I fish the Big Hole River often, and grayling are truly the jewel of the river,” said Pat Munday, a professor at Montana Tech who wrote a popular book about the Big Hole River. “It’s incredibly sad that we have to sue to get the Fish and Wildlife Service to follow the law and protect our natural heritage.”
Protection under the Endangered Species Act would require the development of a federal recovery plan to address, among other things, the chronically low water levels of the Big Hole River.
background
The Arctic grayling is a member of the salmon family and is a beautiful fish with a striking, colorful dorsal fin. The species thrives in cold freshwater streams and rivers in Canada and Alaska.
In the lower 48 states, riverine populations of Arctic grayling have historically existed in only two places: Michigan and the upper Missouri River in Montana. Populations in Michigan became extinct in the 1930s, and populations in Montana were limited to the Big Hole River and a few lakes by the late 1970s. Studies show that Montana grayling are genetically distinct from populations in Canada and Alaska.
