Big Hole River - Grayling

Grayling

The Big Hole is the last habitat in the contiguous United States for native Fluvial Arctic Grayling. The Big Hole River Watershed Committee (BHWC) was formed in 1995 by several Big Hole ranchers and some factions of the conservation community who opposed an ESA listing for fluvial Arctic grayling. The Watershed Committee reached out to local and selected interested entities and developed a viable community-based consensus group to forge solutions to difficult problems that impact the river. The committee was criticized for exclusion of activist voices such as the Center for Biological Diversity and the Montana Wildlife Federation. In response, organizations such as the Big Hole River Foundation were formed, with the goal "to understand, preserve, and enhance the free flowing character of the Big Hole River and to protect its watershed, culture, community and excellent wild trout fishery."

After years of debate by all interests in the Big Hole watershed, in April 2007, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the Fluvial Arctic Grayling from Endangered Species candidacy, which has resulted in a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and other interested parties, who have stated the view that the US FWS decision was politically mandated by Julie MacDonald, the former Department of Interior official who has since resigned. An Office of the Inspector General investigation found that "MacDonald has been heavily involved with editing, commenting on, and reshaping the Endangered Species Program's scientific reports." In the case of grayling, MacDonald ignored clear genetic differences between extremely rare fluvial (river) grayling and relatively common lacustrine (lake) grayling.