By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

MESA — It’s not going to change the ability of Arizonans to catch them, but the U.S. Department of Interior announced Wednesday it has removed the Apache trout from the list of endangered and threatened species.

What the delisting shows, according to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, is the federal Endangered Species Act does work. It has been decades of work that has brought the trout — the official state fish — back from populating just 30 miles of streams in the White Mountains to 30 different populations occupying 175 miles of habitat.

Gov. Katie Hobbs said it’s about more than the $5.1 million federal investment that ensures the trout remain available for anglers to go out, catch and, in some cases, can cook up in a frying pan.

“It is a success that we have gotten it off of the endangered species list,” she said. “It’s now thriving, which adds to visit the White Mountain Apache area and participate in other activities like fishing.”

Fishing the Apache trout has been allowed for awhile, according to Alex Loubere, the native trout and chub coordinator at the Arizona Game and Fish Department.

Where people can fish is regulated by his agency, Loubere said.

In some areas with sufficient populations, that means allowing anglers to pull them out of the stream. But other areas, with smaller numbers, are restricted to catch and release.

Loubere said, delisting or not, his agency will continue to monitor the trout and make adjustments in where and when anglers can drop a line in the water.

That, however, won’t include Hobbs — at least not for some time.
“I’m not good at fishing,” she said. “I’ll practice when I’m done being governor.”

Haaland said this has been a multi-decade effort. She said it dates to even before there was an Endangered Species Act.

“It was the White Mountain Apache Tribe who stepped in to protect this species by passing several ordinances in the 1950s and 1960s that closed certain streams to fishing and saving the species from potential extinction,” Haaland said.

Since then, she said, tribal leaders have worked in collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a branch of her agency, including maintaining a captive breed stock to stock recovery streams and providing a sport fishery “for this highly rare native fish.”

What it also took was “conservation barriers” to keep it separate from non-native species and prevent “hybridization.”

Hobbs called the recovery “an amazing accomplishment.”

“The Apache trout is the first fish species in Arizona to be delisted,” she said. “And it is the first sport fish to be delisted due to conservation efforts.”