February 5, 2002
Contact: John Buse: 805-677-2570 or Steve Velyvis: 805-963-1622

EDC JOINS LAWSUIT TO PROTECT HABITAT FOR NEARLY EXTINCT FISH
Fish and Wildlife Service Failed to Designate Critical Habitat for Endangered Unarmored Threespine Stickleback in Violation of Endangered Species Act

VENTURA, CA - The Environmental Defense Center, representing Friends of the Santa Clara River, joined the Center for Biological Diversity in a lawsuit yesterday challenging the failure of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to finalize a critical habitat designation for the Unarmored Threespine Stickleback. The Stickleback, a scaleless, freshwater fish that inhabits slow moving reaches or quiet water microhabitats of streams and rivers, was designated a Federally endangered species in 1970.

Historically, the Stickleback existed throughout Southern California's rivers and streams. Unfortunately, the fish is now on the verge of extinction due to widespread destruction and modification of its habitat. In addition to impacts from large-scale water impoundment and stream channelization projects, the Stickleback and its habitat are most threatened by urbanization and the resultant runoff, siltation, nutrients, pesticides, and other pollutants. Today, only a few Stickleback populations remain viable in California, one on the upper Santa Clara River near the proposed site for the Newhall Ranch development in Los Angeles, and another in San Antonio Creek in Santa Barbara County.

While the Endangered Species Act requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate critical habitat for all species listed as threatened or endangered, no habitat has been designated for the Stickleback. Since issuing a proposed rule to designate critical habitat for the fish in 1980, the Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to finalize the habitat designation or do anything to protect the habitat areas so critical to the Stickleback's survival. Critical habitat consists of the areas that are considered essential for the survival and recovery of a listed species. Although critical habitat designation does not establish a preserve, it does require federal agencies to consult with the Service before undertaking activities that may impact critical habitat. Private lands are not affected unless Federal funding or permitting activities are involved.

"Without the required protections for the Stickleback's unique and critical habitat areas, the species may be lost forever," said Stephen Velyvis, attorney with the Environmental Defense Center. "We intend to compel the Fish and Wildlife Service to comply with the law to protect and restore this species for future generations."

Since 1977, EDC has been serving California's Central Coast as the only nonprofit, public interest environmental law firm between Los Angeles and San Francisco. EDC represents citizen groups in court and before governmental agencies, provides legal counsel, and educates the community on issues involving water quality and watersheds, biodiversity and endangered species, environmental health and justice, land use and open space, offshore oil and gas, and access to public lands. For more information, contact EDC at (805) 963-1622.

UNARMORED THREESPINE STICKLEBACK BACKGROUND AND FACTS
Common Name: Unarmored Threespine Stickleback
Scientific Name: Gasterosteus aculeatus williamsoni
Status: Federally Endangered
Federal Register: 35 FR 16047 (Oct. 13, 1970)

The unarmored threespine stickleback is a small, scaleless, freshwater fish originally described from the headwaters of the Santa Clara River in northwestern Los Angeles County, California. Previously found also in low gradient portions of the nearby Los Angeles, San Gabriel and Santa Ana Rivers, and from a few localities in Santa Barbara County, California, it has been eliminated from most of its original range. It was reported in 1917 to be abundant throughout the Los Angeles basin. By 1942 it was no longer found, and believed to be extinct there.

Adults are about 1 inch in length. Stickleback are a greenish-gray color with a pinkish-silver belly. Males are reddish, or may turn red at breeding time to attract females. Stickleback feed on insects, small crustaceans, and snails, and to a lesser degree, on flat worms and nematodes. They use plant material to construct small nests in the streams for their eggs and young, secreting a mucousy substance to glue the nest together.

The 1980 proposed Critical Habitat designation includes three stream zones of the upper Santa Clara River watershed in northwestern Los Angeles County, California, including a zone near Del Valle, one in San Francisquito Canyon, and one in Soledad Canyon; and the lower segment of San Antonio Creek on the Vandenberg Air Force Military Reservation in Santa Barbara County, California.

Habitat destruction due to urbanization currently threatens the Stickleback through stream channelization, increased opportunity for the chance of introducing predators and degradation of water quality. Urban development increases runoff, siltation, nutrients, pesticides and other pollutants into rivers. Degradation of water quality is probably the greatest threat posed by urbanization to the continued survival of the Stickleback. Scientists discovered drastic deformities of sticklebacks associated with pollution in the Ventura and lower Santa Clara rivers.

Channelization of waterways also has a number of detrimental effects on the essential habitat of the Stickleback. Channelization increases water velocity in pools, eliminates shallow backwaters, and reduces aquatic vegetation. This poses a serious threat to the Stickleback because it nests in the calm water of pools with abundant vegetation and a slow, gentle current. Stream channelization also increases peak flows during floods. Stickleback populations in Soledad Canyon and San Antonio Creek were both drastically reduced by major flood events.