Environmental groups that sued federal and state agencies expect the dispute to be sent back to lower courts, following the path of a similar case in New Mexico.

In that case, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked that a suit over the Rio Grande cutthroat trout be returned to the New Mexico District Court to clarify standards for listing a species as threatened or endangered.

"We're not sure we have to appeal," said Noah Greenwald, conservation biologist with the Center for Biological Diversity. "[But] if it's not vacated, we'll likely appeal to the 10th Circuit."

But Utah and Wyoming, along with federal agencies, are poised to fight just as hard against listing the Bonneville cutthroat, which is Utah's official state fish.

"The problem with listing is the political ramifications," said Roger Wilson, sport fisheries coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources.

"It would slow down our recovery efforts," said Wilson, who also is chairman of the Bonneville cutthroat trout conservation team. "As our conservation teams have demonstrated . . . cooperative efforts are more effective than a mandate issued by a federal agency."

Beginning in the mid-19th century, development, road-building, grazing and logging caused devastating population declines in the Bonneville cutthroat trout populations in Utah, Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming. By the 1950s, the species was thought to be extinct.

"[But] today, through our restoration efforts, Bonneville cutthroat trout now occupy about 35 percent of their historic range in Utah," Wilson said.

Greenwald says those encouraging numbers are due in large part to surveys that have discovered previously unknown populations. And he notes that officials count "hybrid" populations where Bonneville cutthroat have interbred with other species.

"We applaud the states for surveying and taking actions to restore Bonneville cutthroat trout. However, their efforts don't address habitat degradation and habitat is absolutely critical to the survival of the species," Greenwald said. "The vast majority of those populations are threatened by one or more factors."