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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 130 / Monday, July 12, 2021 / Notices dying, and most adult males only spawn three or four times before dying.
Gila trout require perennial streamflow and coldwater aquatic habitats with unimpaired water quality to maintain persistent, viable populations. Flow regimes vary depending on the site-specific characteristics of stream reaches e.g., stream gradient, seepage, substrate composition, channel dimensions, and watershed hydrology. Suitable water temperature regimes are characterized by maximum water temperatures that do not exceed approximately 20 C 68 F
for six or more consecutive hours in a 24-hour period on more than three consecutive days, and maximum temperature that do not exceed 24 C
77 F. Suitable water quality for Gila trout is characterized by high dissolved oxygen concentration, low turbidity and conductivity, low levels of total dissolved solids, near-neutral pH, and low conductivity. In addition to perennial stream flow and suitable water temperature and water quality, Gila trout require a diversity of habitats sufficient to sustain all life stages of the species i.e., eggs, fry, juveniles, and adults. This includes suitable spawning habitat, habitat where fry can find shelter and food, and areas suitable for occupancy by juvenile and adult Gila trout. Sufficient pool habitat and spawning habitat are likely the two most important habitat features with respect to Gila trout population persistence.
Fragmentation of the historical distribution of Gila trout has resulted in several populations confined to small, isolated habitats throughout the range of the species. Collections from streams in the upper Gila River Basin and San Francisco River Basin, along with genetic analyses, indicate that five lineages of Gila trout exist: Main Diamond Creek, South Diamond Creek, Whiskey Creek, Spruce Creek, and Iron Creek. The distribution of these lineages has fluctuated since 1975, when only five remnant populations i.e., a selfsustaining group of Gila trout inhabiting a single stream were known. Currently, there are 17 extant populations of Gila trout inhabiting approximately 137.5 km 85.2 mi of stream habitat. These include five populations of the Main Diamond Creek lineage, four populations of the South Diamond Creek lineage, three populations of the Whiskey Creek lineage, two populations of the Spruce Creek lineage, two populations of the Iron Creek lineage, and one population Dude Creek, which is considered a mixed-lineage population i.e., a stream or metapopulation that contains multiple lineages of Gila trout, instead of a single
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lineage. Recently, the Spruce Creek and Whiskey Creek lineages each lost a population following large-scale, highseverity wildfires in 2011 and 2012, respectively.
For Gila trout to be able to sustain populations in the wild over time viability, the species requires combinations of sufficiently large, healthy populations that, where possible, have connectivity to dendritic stream networks to maintain adequate population sizes and genetic variation.
Dendritic stream networks provide Gila trout with access to suitable habitat enabling the species to respond to changes in their biological and physical environment representation, environmental stochasticity resiliency, and catastrophic events redundancy.
Few, if any, extant populations of Gila trout are large enough to survive extremes in environmental conditions, and the existing genetic diversity of the species is limited to five remnant lineages. Recovery actions implemented to date have increased the number of populations of Gila trout; however, the spatial distribution of populations is constrained by the patchy distribution and geographic isolation of cold-water streams, many of which are singlestream systems that are relatively small.
Significant factors affecting the viability of Gila trout include habitat loss and fragmentation Factor A that result from large-scale, high-severity wildfire and the effects of climate change;
unregulated angling Factor B;
predation and competition from nonnative fish that are naturalized throughout the Gila trouts historical range Factor C; and hybridization with rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and small, isolated population sizes Factor E.
Recovery Plan Goals The objective of a recovery plan is to provide a framework for the recovery of a species so that protection under the ESA is no longer necessary. A recovery plan includes scientific information about the species and provides criteria and actions necessary for us to be able to reclassify the species to threatened status or remove it from the lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. Recovery plans help guide our recovery efforts by describing actions we consider necessary for the species conservation, and by estimating time and costs for implementing needed recovery measures.
In this revised recovery plan, we transition from a strategy of crisismanagement focused on preventing extinction to an approach of establishing sustainable populations
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throughout the historical range of the Gila trout, populations that contain the breadth of genetic diversity of the species. The recovery strategy for the Gila trout will entail incremental replacement of nonnative salmonids with Gila trout in suitable habitat throughout a significant portion of the historical range of the species. This strategy will be implemented by conducting actions to substantially improve redundancy, representation, and resiliency to the point that the species is no longer at risk for extinction and may be delisted. Recovery objectives include securing the existing genetic diversity of Gila trout, increasing the geographic distribution of the species, and increasing the size, dendritic population structure, and interconnectedness of populations. The revised recovery plan provides recovery criteria aimed at managing or eliminating threats to meet the goal of delisting the species. These recovery criteria are based on the area of occupied habitat within the Gila trouts presumed historical range, the conservation of genetically distinct Gila trout lineages, the establishment of dendritic metapopulations, and the absence and management of nonnative salmonids within Gila trout habitat. The site-specific management actions needed to address the threats to Gila trout viability and achieve the recovery criteria involve: 1 Repatriation of Gila trout to streams within its presumed historical range; 2 establishment and maintenance of captive propagation and hatchery facilities; 3 management of nonnative salmonids; 4 monitoring of Gila trout populations; 5 conducting public education and outreach; and 6
developing and implementing regulations to maintain sustainable Gila trout populations in streams open to sport fishing.
Request for Public Comments Section 4f of the ESA requires us to provide public notice and an opportunity for public review and comment during recovery plan development. It is also our policy to request peer review of recovery plans July 1, 1994; 59 FR 34270. In an appendix to the approved recovery plan, we will summarize and respond to the issues raised by the public and peer reviewers. Substantive comments may or may not result in changes to the recovery plan; comments regarding recovery plan implementation will be forwarded as appropriate to Federal or other entities so that they can be taken into account during the course of implementing recovery actions.
Responses to individual commenters
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