20231031 09062900 1.0 TRUE Bull Trout Core Areas As part of the technical presentation made to the bull trout 5- year review scientist and manager panels, held March 7-9, 2005 in Portland Oregon, the Service scientists identified as authors of this report assembled and presented a conservation status and risk assessment for bull trout core areas. Our primary objective in using this assessment tool was to conduct a structured evaluation of existing data that had the capability to incorporate and integrate population data and threat information available to us in a variety of nonstandard formats. We wished to spatially evaluate conservation status of the 121 bull trout core areas in order to assess overall patterns of risk and identify any relative strongholds or weak areas for bull trout conservation. We reasoned that a successful process would allow us to maximize use of data collected at the local population and core area level, where the highest degree of specificity occurs and threats are most appropriately characterized. A further goal was to roll the integrated analysis into larger blocks for the panels to use in assessing risk in the ESA context. Our search for a process that was scientifically supported, well documented and widely used led us to the Natural Heritage Ranking (www.NatureServe.org, Master et al. 2003, MNHP 2004). One strength of this process was that it could be applied on multiple scales andwould therefore be an appropriate tool for quantifying conservation risk of bull trout. USFWS