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Federal judge halts U.S. Fish and Wildlife's Arctic grayling plans in southwestern Montana – Daily Montanan [1]

['Darrell Ehrlick', 'More From Author', '- August']

Date: 2023-08-02  

A federal judge has said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s plan to install a permanent pipeline and several other modifications to help protect the imperiled Arctic grayling, a species of native fish, would likely violate the Wilderness Act, and granted a preliminary injunction that will halt work at the Red Rock Lakes Wilderness Area in southwestern Montana.

Federal district court Judge Donald Molloy issued the ruling on Wednesday, siding with Wilderness Watch, the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, the Gallatin Wildlife Association and the Yellowstone to Uintas Connection – groups that had brought the court challenge.

In his ruling, which only temporarily stops the project until a final decision can be reached, Molloy said the plan to help boost the Arctic grayling populations violated the provisions of the Wilderness Act, which aims to keep intact areas of wilderness protected from human development. Furthermore, in a pointed decision, the judge said the USFWS’ own science presented in court documents remained doubtful such a plan would help the species.

The construction activity was slated to start as early as Aug. 15, but will now be halted pending a “complete judicial review of agency action.”

Meanwhile, different groups have advocated that the Arctic grayling be listed as an endangered species, but the Fish and Wildlife Service has not made a final determination on how to help the fish.

“(The groups) argue that the Service acted arbitrarily and capriciously because it approved the project despite recognizing that it may not actually prevent degradation of the Centennial Valley grayling population and that it would actually diminish the area’s wilderness character,” the order said. “But to say that an action may achieve a conservation purpose in a wilderness area is not the same as saying it is necessary to that goal.”

Molloy included the scoring worksheet the service used to analyze different alternatives and pointed out that by the USFWS’ own admission, the plan would have net negative effect on the wilderness character.

“The service insists that the negative effects comply with the Wilderness Act because such project is necessary to conserve the Centennial Valley grayling and any of the more effective options … have too great an impact on the wilderness character,” the order said. “Put simply, the agency concluded that the project would have a detrimental effect on the area’s wilderness character — a conclusion inconsistent with (the law) — but it approved it anyway.”

Molloy faulted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for failing to make a compelling argument on two levels. First, he said that it had not made a clear enough case that any of the proposed interventions to save the Arctic grayling were working or would work. Secondly, he said the service had not proven that the possible extinction of the Centennial Valley grayling would be stopped by the plans, which clearly violate the Wilderness Act.

“The service itself has acknowledged that ‘further study’ is necessary to determine if the proposed action will actually solve the problem,” he said. “In the absence of more specific exigency, the impact on the Arctic grayling is sharply outweighed by the threat of a permanent alteration of a wilderness area.”

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[1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2023/08/02/federal-judge-halts-u-s-fish-and-wildlifes-arctic-grayling-plans-in-southwestern-montana/

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