In December 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a notice of the not warranted finding on the petition to list the Rio Grande cutthroat trout.
After completing a thorough review and consulting with scientists, state agencies, species experts and others, USFWS concluded that the Rio Grande cutthroat trout is not in danger of extinction or likely to become so in the foreseeable future. Therefore, it does not meet the definition of a threatened or an endangered species.
The Rio Grande cutthroat trout, one of 14 subspecies of cutthroat trout, lives in mostly remote, mountainous streams in New Mexico and southern Colorado.
Rio Grande cutthroats have red, orange, and yellow sides, peppered with dark spots. To complete its life cycle, the freshwater salmonid needs a network of slow and fast streams with clear, cold, and highly oxygenated water and gravel substrates.
USFWS evaluated the past, present and future threats to the Rio Grande cutthroat trout, and the primary factor impacting the survival of the subspecies is the presence of nonnative species of trout, including rainbow trout, brook trout, and brown trout.
The conservation populations of Rio Grande cutthroat trout occupy approximately 12 percent of the species’ historical range. Additional threats include habitat loss, reduced habitat connectivity, and whirling disease.
The Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Conservation Team consists of state agencies in New Mexico and Colorado, as well as Federal agencies, Tribes, and nongovernmental organizations. The Conservation Team has reduced or eliminated threats caused by nonnative species, habitat loss, disease and overharvest.
In the past ten years, the Conservation Team has conducted 13 population restorations by removing nonnative trout and reintroducing Rio Grande cutthroat trout.
source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service