Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants: Emergency Listing of the Jarbidge River Population Segment of Bull Trout as Endangered

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) exercises its emergency authority to determine the Jarbidge River population segment of bull trout (Salvelinus confluentus) from the Jarbidge River basin in southern Idaho and northern Nevada to be endangered pursuant to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, as amended (Act). The Jarbidge River population segment, composed of a single subpopulation, is threatened by habitat degradation from past and ongoing land management activities such as mining, road construction and maintenance, and grazing. Recently initiated river channel alteration associated with unauthorized road construction on the West Fork of the Jarbidge River is believed to imminently threaten the survival of the Jarbidge River bull trout population. Because of the need to make the protective measures afforded by the Act immediately available to the Jarbidge River population of bull trout and its habitat, the Service finds that an emergency rule action is justified. This emergency rule provides Federal protection pursuant to the Act for the Jarbidge River population of bull trout for a period of 240 days. A proposed rule to list the Jarbidge River population of bull trout as threatened, which requested data and comment from the public, was published in the Federal Register on June 10, 1998. The comment period on the proposed rule closes on October 8, 1998.