WCT Multi-state Assessment February 1 0, 2003 



Table 14. Miles of habitats supporting westslope cutthroat trout that were within Forest Service 

 designated wilderness areas by abundance class for an assessment done in 2002. 



Conservation Populations 



A total of 563 populations of WCT occupying about 24,450 miles of habitat (72% of occupied 

 habitats) were identified as conservation populations (Figure 7; Appendix G). These designated 

 conservation populations were spread throughout the historical range, occurring in 67 of the 70 

 HUC's historically occupied by WCT and one HUC outside of the historical range, but 

 occupancy by conservation populations were obviously denser within the core of the historical 

 range than near the fringes (Figure 7). Individual conservation populations occupied from 0.3 to 

 over 6.000 miles of habitat (median = 5.6: Figure 8). The distribution of lengths of habitat 

 occupied by these conservation populations was skewed with most of the populations occupying 

 less than 10 miles. Most of the conservation populations were isolets; however, conservation 

 populations that operated as connected metapopulations occupied much more habitat (Table 1 5). 

 Populations that were isolates were much more likely to be "core" conservation populations, 

 while populations that were designated as metapopulations were more likely to support unique 

 life-history characteristics (Table 15). 



Of the 563 designated conservation populations, 339 (60%) had at least some component that 

 was genetically unaltered and 172 (30%) consisted entirely of stream segments that were 

 genetically unaltered. The total length of stream occupied by those conservation populations 

 where all stream segments making up the conservation population had been genetically tested 

 and no genetic introgression had been found ranged from 0.4 to 12.8 miles. 



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