After sharp prodding by four environmental groups, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced it is proposing the razorback sucker for listing on the official Endangered Species List.

Last week, four groups - the Sierra Club Legal Defense Fund, the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, the Four Corners Action Coalition and the Colorado Environmental Coalition - filed a federal suit in Denver seeking to force listing of the species. They said the agency was required to have taken action by May 1991, but had not.Now the Fish and Wildlife Service agrees the razorback should be protected, although it is not conceding the environmental suit had anything to do with that action. And officials are not designating critical habitat for the fish, which once ranged through the larger rivers of the Colorado River system, including several in Utah.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has approved a listing package, said Clark Johnson, assistant field supervisor in Salt Lake City.

"It still has to go through departmental review and Office of Managementand Budget review. But the package is proceeding forward, proposing to list the species as endangered."

That may take a few weeks. After the final decision is made, another 10 days are required before it can be published in the Federal Register and become official.

The listing document was in the pipeline before the lawsuit, Johnson said.

"There had been a tie to some of the legal decisions that have been made with regard to the spotted owl in the Northwest, and there were some problems in addressing the critical habitat issue," he said.

Designating the spotted owl as endangered has been one of the sharpest controversies over the Endangered Species Act. Listing forces protection, which could cost as many as 20,000 timber industry workers their jobs, according to critics.

Concerning the sucker's listing, Johnson said, "The paperwork's been in for a long time and was all ready to go, and it was just a matter of trying to address that habitat issue."

Critical habitat is the area of the fish's range that is to be protected as essential to its survival. Asked what habitat would be protected, he said none is to be listed at the time.

Traditionally, critical habitat hasn't been defined for various species at the time of their listing as endangered, he said. "That, however, has been one of the things that has developed from the spotted owl situation, in which the courts have ordered us to identify critical habitat for the spotted owl."

That order could have ramifications for the way other species are handled, he said. Under the rules, the Fish and Wildlife Service has up to a year to make the designation.

Asked if that would happen in a year for the sucker, Johnson said, "I would presume we would have no recourse."

Because the razorback swims through the same rivers as the Colorado squawfish and the humpback chub, both already listed as endangered, he doesn't think the new listing would affect any water projects.

John Spinks, deputy regional director for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, said, "At this point in time, we do not have enough information to identify critical habitat."

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Dams have sharply curtailed the species' range. The razorback population has been shrinking alarming, both in terms of distribution and numbers, Spinks said.

It does not seem to be reproducing in the wild any longer, and the fish are aging - meaning the species is in danger of dying out.

Ken Rait, issues coordinator for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Friday, "I think the decision to designate it is certainly a step in the right direction.

"But I think that we're awfully concerned that it's looking like they're going to be dragging their feet on designating critical habitat."

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