KALISPELL, Mont. (AP) — A trio of conservation groups are suing the U.S. government over its plan for the recovery of threatened bull trout.
Save the Bull Trout, Friends of the Wild Swan and Alliance for the Wild Rockies filed the lawsuit against the heads of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Interior in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
The recovery plan for the fish, which is listed as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, was released in 2015.
Among their arguments, the plaintiffs say the plan doesn’t have population targets, so there’s no objective criteria in it to measure the species’ recovery.
Federal officials declined to comment.
It’s the second lawsuit to attempt to force a rewrite of the plan. The first was dismissed by a judge in Oregon for a lack of jurisdiction.