The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has proposed a new and expanded critical habitat designation for bull trout, the third designation in the last decade.

The agency on Wednesday announced the proposal to designate about 22,679 miles of stream and 533,426 acres of lakes and reservoirs in Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana and Nevada.

A 2005 designation that was adopted included a patchwork of just 3,828 miles of stream and 143,218 acres of lakes and reservoirs, and 985 miles of shoreline in Washington state.

But that decision from the Service was tainted in scandal. An inspector general’s report found that former Deputy Secretary of Interior Julie McDonald improperly interfered with the process to exclude waters that should have been designated.

“This proposed revision is the result of extensive review of our earlier bull trout critical habitat proposals and 2005 designation, public comments and new information,” said Robyn Thorson, director of the agency’s Pacific Region. “We voluntarily embarked on this re-examination to ensure that the best science was used to identify the features and areas essential to the conservation of the species.”

Last year, the Service was seeking a two-year period to develop a new designation proposal, but in July a federal judge in Portland, Ore., ordered that the review be completed by Dec. 31 and that a new designation be adopted by Sept. 30, 2010.

In Montana, the proposed designation includes 3,094 stream miles and 223,762 acres of lakes and reservoirs.

“I think it’s a huge improvement” over previous critical habitat proposals, said Arlene Montgomery of Friends of the Wild Swan, a Montana environmental group that has challenged previous proposals in court several times since 2001.

Montgomery noted that the proposal includes more connecting habitat that may not necessarily be occupied by bull trout, and most importantly, it includes federal lands that had previously been excluded.

“Having critical habitat on federal lands is really where the rubber hits the road in terms of recovery,” she said.

Critical habitat will “raise the bar” for federal agencies in consulting with the Service on management actions. The Service insists that private landowners do not have consultation requirements, unless they are undertaking actions that involve federal permits or funding.

A related draft economic analysis also was released Wednesday, estimating the potential incremental cost of the revised designation to be $5 million to $7 million a year over the next 20 years. Much of the cost is related to the additional consultation requirements for federal agencies.

Additional costs are expected, in the range of $400,000 to $1.6 million a year, associated with the changes in forest management, such as removing or replacing culverts and other efforts to reduce sedimentation.

The Service is seeking public comment on the proposed designation.

A series of informational meetings have been scheduled across the five states, including a Feb. 16 meeting at Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional headquarters in Missoula.

More information on the proposal and how to comment is available online at:

www.fws.gov/pacific/bulltrout