WCT Multi-state Assessment 



February 10.2003 



Occurrence in Special Management Areas 



Of the over 33.000 miles of habitats currently occupied by WCT. 2% were in designated parks. 

 19% occurred within designated wilderness areas. 40% were within Forest Service roadless areas 

 (including wilderness areas), and almost 70% occurred within federally managed lands (Table 

 13; Figure 6). Approximately 1.5% of currently occupied habitats that supported WCT with no 

 evidence of introgression occurred within designated wilderness or parks (Table 13). Since we 

 did not assess BLM wilderness or roadless areas in this assessment, the estimates of the 

 proportions of habitat currently occupied by WCT within lands managed as wilderness and 

 roadless are slight under-estimates. 



Table 13. Miles of habitats occupied (% of occupied) by westslope cutthroat trout in Forest 

 Service designated wilderness and roadless areas and within all federal lands. 



Parks 



Genetic status 



Miles 



Wilderness 

 Miles 



All roadless 

 Miles 



All federal 

 Miles 



Tested; Unaltered 



Tested; <= 10% 

 introgressed 



Tested; <=25% to > 

 10% introgressed 



Tested; > 25% 

 introgressed 



Suspected Unaltered 

 Potentially Altered 



Mixed Stock; Altered 

 and Unaltered 



Total 



68.2 0.2% 434.2 1.3% 1150.4 3.4% 2346.6 7.0% 



55.2 0.2% 160.8 0.5% 408.2 1.2% 822.7 2.5% 



74.1 0.2% 44.3 0.1% 141.6 0.4% 371.8 1.1% 



34.0 0.1% 54.0 0.2% 164.1 0.5% 476.9 1.4% 



99.2 0.3% 3857.5 11.5% 5961.8 17.8% 8023.6 23.9% 

 150.7 0.4% 1779.5 5.3% 5340.5 15.9% 10749.7 32.0% 



85.2 0.3% 18.1 0.1% 357.0 1.1% 589.4 1.8% 



566.7 1.7% 6348.4 18.9%) 13523.7 40.3% 23380.7 69.7% 



The spatial arrangement of WCT whose abundance was deemed at or near capacity were 

 obviously clumped and appeared related to the presence of areas designated as wilderness, 

 roadless, or national parks (Figure 6). About 3.800 miles classified as "At or Near Capacity" 

 (39% of all miles in this class) were in wilderness and about 930 miles (10% of all miles in this 

 class) had field data to support this classification (Table 14). Because assessments of abundance, 

 regardless of data quality, were linked to quality of habitat, it is not surprising that most 

 populations located in wilderness and roadless areas would be designated as being at or near 

 capacity. Except where empirical observations indicated otherwise, nearly all habitats in 

 wilderness areas were presumed to be in pristine condition. While assignment of 54% (2.055 

 miles) of the miles of habitat rated "At or Near Capacity" within wilderness was based on 

 professional judgment ("Low" data quality), approximately 25% of the miles classified in this 

 category in wilderness was supported by field data ("High" data quality). 



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