February 5, 2002
Contact: Jim Edmondson, California Trout, 818 865-2888
David Hogan, Center for Biological Diversity, 619 523-1498
Tanya Gulesserian, Environmental Defense Center, 805 963-1622

CONSERVATION, FISHING GROUPS TO SUE FEDS OVER MISSED SOUTHERN STEELHEAD TROUT CONSERVATION DEADLINE

Seven conservation and fishing organizations have notified the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service of their intent to file a lawsuit in 60 days over the agency’s failure to finalize a year-old proposal to expand Endangered Species Act protections for southern steelhead trout. The group’s notice is separate but closely related to an ongoing lawsuit against the National Marine Fisheries Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service over both agencies’ arbitrary decision to exclude steelhead located upstream of dams and south of Malibu Creek when the species was listed as endangered in 1997.

Under the Endangered Species Act, the Fisheries Service is required to finalize within one year any proposal to list a species as threatened or endangered. In December 2000, the Service proposed to extend the protected range of southern steelhead from Malibu Creek in Los Angeles County south to San Mateo Creek in San Diego County. The proposal came in response to the discovery in 1998 of a San Mateo Creek steelhead population and a previous conservationists’ notice of intent to sue. “A slow moving bureaucracy has held up all sorts of resources to protect San Mateo Creek steelhead, from funding to land use regulations,” said David Hogan, Rivers Program Coordinator for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The agency still has an opportunity to make steelhead protection a priority before being called into court.”

In a related matter, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has made a surprise move in the parallel listing lawsuit by backing away from a previous claim to jurisdiction over southern steelhead populations above dams. Marine Fisheries Service scientists recommended early in the listing process that both ocean-going steelhead and those trapped above dams should be protected because they are the same species and streams above dams provide the best spawning habitat. Yet the Marine Fisheries Service ignored its own scientists and excluded above-dam areas in deference to the Fish and Wildlife Service jurisdiction claim. “Fish and Wildlife knew their position was arbitrary and so abandoned ship,” said Jim Edmondson, Conservation Director of California Trout Inc. “The Fisheries Service has run out of excuses; It’s time they respected the opinion of their own scientists and protect important populations and stream habitat above dams.”

Southern California steelhead are a distinct population of a species which occurs from Alaska to northern Baja California. Much like salmon of the Pacific Northwest, steelhead spend much of their adult life in the ocean, returning to rivers to spawn. Headwater streams in southern California mountains and foothills provide spawning habitat and shelter juvenile fish. Estuaries provide a zone where young steelhead adapt to saltier water before migrating into the ocean. Coastal rivers and streams serve as migration corridors between the headwaters and ocean. Tens of thousands of the prized sport fish once returned from the Pacific Ocean every year to spawn in southern California streams and rivers. Dams and urban development have since decimated steelhead runs and today only a few hundred fish remain. “Dams, development, dirty water, and government apathy have all combined to drive southern steelhead to the brink of extinction,” said Tanya Gulesserian, staff attorney for the Environmental Defense Center.

Groups filing the notice include California Trout, the Center for Biological Diversity, Environmental Defense Center, Friends of the Santa Clara River, Heal the Bay, Institute for Fisheries Resources and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman’s Associations.