The initial recovery plan was created in 1979 and revised in 1983 and 2009. These plans outline the criteria for delisting threatened and endangered species. The primary objective of the recovery plan was to establish 30 genetically pure populations of Apache trout, with adequate habitat to sustain them independently and that objective was achieved.

Apache trout is a game fish species found only in eastern Arizona's streams and creeks surrounding the White Mountains. It is one of only two trout species native to Arizona, the other being the closely related Gila trout. Along with cutthroat and rainbow trout, the Apache trout is considered a Pacific trout (genus Oncorhynchus). It was not recognized as a separate species until 1972, soon after that it was named Arizona’s state fish. It is the first gamefish to be removed from the threatened and endangered species list due to recovery.

Apache trout can measure up to 24 inches in length and weigh up to six pounds, though in their native headwater streams, they don’t exceed 16 inches. Like the Gila trout, Apache trout are yellowish gold in color and covered in dark spots but are known to have fewer and larger spots than Gila trout. Apache trout can also be differentiated from Gila trout by a distinct black eye band that gives the Apache trout the appearance of a mask.

Beginning in the late 1800s when Anglo-American settlers began to populate Arizona, Apache trout likely suffered from overfishing as it is popular as both a sport fish and as table fare. Apache trout populations have also suffered from habitat degradation due to various land uses (e.g., timber harvest, road construction, cattle grazing) and wildfires.

The largest threat to Apache trout populations is the introduction of non-native trout. Originally introduced for food and recreation, brook and brown trout outcompete and prey directly on Apache trout. Introduced rainbow and cutthroat trout can hybridize with Apache trout, which dilutes their unique gene pool. Much of the restoration work has involved removing these introduced trout from Apache trout habitat and constructing barriers to block further non-native introductions.

Non-native trout do remain in streams once inhabited by Apache trout and in stream reaches downstream of Apache trout recovery populations. And while the goal of 30 genetically pure populations has been achieved (meeting the criteria for delisting according to the Apache trout recovery plan), not all of its original stream miles have been reclaimed, and recovery efforts are still ongoing. The Apache Trout Cooperative Management Plan, which was developed alongside the species status assessment in 2021, was signed by partner organizations, and details continued funding and responsibilities among several recovery partner organizations.

We used the species status assessment framework to summarize and analyze the best available information concerning Apache trout. The draft SSA report was peer-reviewed and later updated to include all field survey data collected through 2021. The 2022 SSA, developed by biologists from the White Mountain Apache Tribe, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Forest Service, Trout Unlimited, and the Service, confirms the goal of 30 genetically pure self-sustaining populations was reached. The SSA report was relied upon to complete a 5-year status review for Apache trout which recommended delisting due to recovery.

The Apache trout was listed as endangered in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation Act, a precursor to the Endangered Species Act. In 1975, because additional pure populations were found on the Fort Apache Reservation and captive culturing was successful, it was downlisted to threatened and opened to angling in select locations. 

In 1955, the White Mountain Apache Tribe took unprecedented and predictive action to close angling in all populations of Apache trout on the Fort Apache Indian Reservation. That closure began the conservation efforts for the species well before the federal Endangered Species Act passed into law. Additional fishing closures, habitat management actions, watershed and trout management plans, and establishing 13 additional populations on and off the reservation from relict populations on Tribal lands followed in subsequent years.

In the 1970s, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the White Mountain Apache Tribe began working in earnest on habitat restoration projects, removing non-native fishes and conducting stream-to-stream transfers of known pure Apache trout populations to establish new populations. Working with state and federal agencies, the Tribe also began a hatchery program for Apache trout. That hatchery raises millions of eggs that eventually grow into catchable fish. About 38,000 Apache trout are stocked in lakes and streams like the North Fork of the White River each April-September. For more information, please visit the Williams Creek National Fish Hatchery website.

Thanks to conservation efforts led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe and collaboration among Tribal, state, and federal partners, Apache trout populations are rebounding. Removing outdated fish passage fish passage
Fish passage is the ability of fish or other aquatic species to move freely throughout their life to find food, reproduce, and complete their natural migration cycles. Millions of barriers to fish passage across the country are fragmenting habitat and leading to species declines. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Fish Passage Program is working to reconnect watersheds to benefit both wildlife and people.

Learn more about fish passage barriers will reconnect fragmented habitat and Apache trout populations, increasing genetic diversity. Projects funded through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President’s America the Beautiful initiative.

Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law , such as the 2022 Apache Trout Recovery Fish Passage Infrastructure Project and the 2023 Crooked Creek Route 55 Culvert Fish Passage Project, both led by the White Mountain Apache Tribe, are supporting the recovery of Apache trout by replacing culverts, removing barriers, and creating larger meta-populations of Apache Trout by re-opening access to over 60 miles of habitat.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure and economic competitiveness. We were directly appropriated $455 million over five years in BIL funds for programs related to the President’s America the Beautiful initiative.

Learn more about Bipartisan Infrastructure Law , enacted in 2021, allocated a historic $4.8 million to advance recovery efforts. Funded projects include a dam removal to support watershed-scale ecosystem restoration to restore aquatic connectivity and aquatic organism passage in the headwaters of the Salt River Basin and adjacent Little Colorado River watershed improving resiliency for several native Apache trout populations and other native species. In addition, replacing damaged and non-functioning culverts in the Apache trout stream habitat has re-opened access to nearly 60 miles of habitat allowing the trout to move freely.   

While many relict strains of Apache trout were likely lost to hybridization and habitat loss, seventeen of the original strains were preserved thanks to the White Mountain Apache Tribe’s early conservation measures. 

With modern genetic testing techniques, field biologists can take water samples from streams and analyze them for environmental DNA, identifying what kind of trout populate any given area of a stream. If non-native trout are detected, biologists return to the stream and wade through it with electro-fishing equipment. They temporarily stun and then remove any non-native trout. Barriers are constructed to protect Apache trout populations and habitat in headwaters and also provide for managed non-native trout sportfishing opportunities in downstream reaches. 

Another conservation measure involves treating streams with a chemical to eradicate all non-native trout in the stream. Rains that follow a wildfire cause a similar effect. Following one of these chemical renovations, native Apache trout are then transferred to the newly cleared and blocked headwater streams in the White Mountains where they can flourish once again without the encroachment of introduced brook, brown, rainbow and cutthroat trout.

Apache trout taxonomy has evolved due to advances in molecular techniques and phylogenetic analyses. These advances have led to a better understanding of the Apache trout’s relationship to other closely related species and ancient ancestors, and, not surprisingly, the species has been renamed several times. 

Native trout have been known to scientists to occur in the White Mountains of Arizona since at least 1873. Specimens collected from the White River were first described as Colorado River Cutthroat Trout O. c. pleuriticus (Cope and Yarrow 1875; as cited in USFWS 2009), and specimens collected from the Little Colorado River were referred to as Salmo mykiss pleuriticus (Jordan and Evermann 1896; as cited in USFWS 2009). 

However, it was not until 1972 that the Apache trout was originally described as Salmo apache owing to fewer and larger spots than Gila trout and a horizontal band across the eye absent in Gila trout (Miller 1972). At that time, the Apache trout was split out from the Gila trout (described in Miller 1950), which is what all trout native to the Gila River basin had been referred to before that time (Miller 1972). The Apache trout was renamed Oncorhynchus apache when Pacific trouts were reclassified to Oncorhynchus (Smith and Stearley 1989). Behnke (1992) referred to Apache trout and Gila trout as subspecies of the same species (O. gilae apache and O. gilae gilae, respectively), and the Apache trout trinomial was recognized by the American Fisheries Society in 2004 (Nelson et al. 2004)

However, the American Fisheries Society now recognizes Apache Trout as O. apache in the 7th Edition of Common and Scientific Names (Page et al. 2013). The common name Arizona Trout was originally linked to Salmo Apache, but in 1980 the American Fisheries Society accepted the species’ common name change to Apache trout (Robins et al. 1980).

The Service does expect immediate change in Apache trout sportfishing opportunities. When the Apache trout was downlisted to threatened in 1975, a 4(d) rule was put in place, which allows for certain expected activities that are consistent with or contribute to the species’ overall conservation, even if those activities result in the take of the species. The 4(d) rule allows the White Mountain Apache Tribe and Arizona Game and Fish Department to regulate sportfishing of Apache trout in locations where they are stocked from hatcheries specifically for sportfishing purposes or in populations where a large and stable enough to handle fishing pressure, and those opportunities will continue. The White Mountain Apache Tribe and Arizona Game and Fish Department will continue to use management authorities for the long-term conservation of recovery populations and promote sportfishing opportunities where appropriate.

The final rule is available at the Federal Register at www.federalregister.gov and regulations.gov by searching under docket number FWS-R2-ES-2022-0115.