Photo By U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally recommended delisting Apache trout from the Endangered Species Act.
“Resilience” explores the decades-long recovery process led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe
Contributed Article
ARIZONA – Recently, Trout Unlimited unveiled a new film about the historic recovery of Arizona’s native Apache trout. In a first for a salmonid, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally recommended delisting the trout from the Endangered Species Act in 2023 following decades of work by the White Mountain Apache Tribe to restore the habitat and populations of this fish.
“Resilience is really a story about how the White Mountain Apache Tribe had the foresight (to) protect and restore this vulnerable trout population as early as 1955,” said Josh Duplechian, Senior Producer at Trout Unlimited. “ More than a hundred years ago, the Apache trout inhabited areas stretching nearly 700 miles only to see that range reduced to about twenty-five percent of its original territory since then.”
Due to habitat loss and overfishing, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service formally listed the Apache trout under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973 but downlisted it to “threatened” status in 1975. Over the coming decades, however, the Tribe moved decisively to recognize the Apache trout as deserving of special protection and protected the trout from hybridization, predation, and further habitat loss through a series of efforts, including non-native fish removal, the construction of conservation barriers to separate Apache trout populations from non-native trout, and the development of a stronger outdoor economy.
Working with state and federal agencies, the Tribe also began a hatchery program for Apache trout that today raises trout eggs that are hatched and grown into catchable-size fish.
Then, in 2017, TU worked closely with the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Arizona Game and Fish Department, and the U.S. Forest Service to begin counting the Apache trout population.
After five years of sampling approximately 20 percent of the habitat occupied by the Apache trout, TU and a core team of partners drafted a Species Status Assessment (SSA) for the Apache trout, which provided a science-based assessment of the needs, current status, and future conditions of the species. The Fish and Wildlife Service relied heavily on this data to justify its formal recommendation to delist the Apache trout.
Even with the delisting proposal, Apache trout will continue to be a priority for TU for the foreseeable future through our Priority Waters campaign. Projects funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe, such as the 2022 Apache Trout Recovery Fish Passage Infrastructure Project and the 2023 Crooked Creek Route 55 Culvert Fish Passage Project,
Trout Unlimited will also continue to support the recovery of Apache trout by replacing culverts, removing barriers, and creating larger meta-populations of Apache trout by re-opening access to over 60 miles of habitat.
