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BOISE, Idaho – Trout Unlimited, a national conservation group involved in the salmon recovery lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oregon says it’s stepping back the court case.

Rob Masonis, Trout Unlimited’s vice president of western conservation, says the group felt its efforts could be maximized elsewhere.

Masonis says the lawsuit has only been effective in preventing the complete loss of salmon and steelhead populations in the Columbia and Snake rivers. Trout Unlimited is one of 13 conservation groups to challenge the federal government’s salmon management plan, called a Biological Opinion. Almost 20 years since the first version of the plan was adopted, it is still being reworked.

Given the prospects of continued legal sparring over the management of salmon and steelhead in the Columbia and Snake rivers, Trout Unlimited says it will focus its attention on an effort to bring stakeholders to the table to work out a management plan that everyone can live with.

Even with Trout Unlimited’s departure, the other conservation groups, along with the Nez Perce Indian Tribe and the State of Oregon, continue to legally challenge the federal government’s fish management plan on the grounds that it fails to follow a scientific method of recovery. For instance, it doesn’t include the removal of dams on the lower Snake River.

Pat Ford of Save our Wild Salmon, one of the remaining conservation groups, says he is not upset with Trout Unlimited’s decision. He says a collaborative discussion among stakeholders is likely to develop a salmon management plan faster than the nearly two-decade legal challenge.

Ford says such collaboration could follow the model set by the State of Idaho through its efforts to develop the Owyhee Initiative. That plan was developed under the leadership of U.S. Sen.Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, over eight years. The resulting initiative allowed the designation of more than 500,000 acres of new wilderness while also accommodating ranchers’ grazing interests and provided recreational access.

Trout Unlimited will continue to support other conservation groups’ lawsuit, Masonis said. But he isn’t optimistic about their chances of success.

“We aren’t getting the results,” says Masonis, who says his groups is looking for elected office-holders to lead a stakeholder discussion.

Among the names of U.S. lawmakers Trout Unlimited will be courting is Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho. The conservation group says it needs lawmakers who are willing put aside partisan politics in order to find a needed solution.