The Center for Biological Diversity, a group petitioning for the protections, lambasted the Trump administration for the decision.
By Alan Riquelmy, Courthouse News Service
The federal government on Monday denied listing the Western Coast Chinook salmon as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision came after what the National Marine Fisheries Service called a comprehensive review of the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon. The agency examined the issue after a petition called for listing them as threatened or endangered and designating their habitat as critical.
“Based on the best scientific and commercial information available, including the status review report, and taking into account efforts being made to protect the species, we have determined that the … Chinook salmon [evolutionarily significant units] do not warrant listing,” the service stated in its 12-month finding on the petition.
The Center for Biological Diversity, one of the groups calling for the listing, blasted the decision in a statement.
“By denying protected status to Chinook salmon on the West Coast, the Trump administration put political and private interests ahead of our dwindling wild spring Chinook salmon runs,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Selling out salmon runs will benefit only the logging industry and dam operators, while fish, wildlife, orcas, healthy rivers, salmon fishers, tribes and the public interest suffer.”
The center and other organizations’ August 2022 petition was followed by a 90-day finding in January 2023. That finding stated listings for the Chinook salmon could be warranted.
However, a status review team convened in the wake of that initial finding led to the decision against listing the Chinook salmon.
The team, among other items, examined the extinction risk level of the Chinook salmon throughout its range.
The service determined that both the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon qualified as a species under the Endangered Species Act and delineated the areas they are found.
It also pointed to 14 monitored populations of the Oregon Coast from 1986 to 2021. Of those, 13 populations had spawns in the thousands to tens of thousands. Exceptions exist, with the lowest in 2021 among the Coquille, Tillamook and Siuslaw populations.
The Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon is more abundant, the service found.
Harvests of the salmon fall within ranges that should produce a maximum sustainable yield. Also, these harvests don’t impede the salmon’s viability in the near future, the agency found.
Other animals illegally introduced to the Chinook salmon’s waters are predators. However, the service said that while some of these animals have increased over the decades and the salmon have decreased, it saw no cause-and-effect relationship.
The service noted that the Chinook salmon have faced negative impacts since California’s founding, including dams, mining and urban development.
“Placer mining in the 1800s destroyed spawning and rearing habitats either directly or through increased sedimentation, and in some areas, mine wastes still affect water quality and riparian function,” the service said.
The service noted that federal, state, tribal and local laws have positively impacted the salmon. One example is a partnership between the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, which have worked with the service to protect riparian and stream habitats.
While inadequate regulations persist, they pose a low risk to the Chinook salmon’s viability, the service said. Additionally, some regulations for the salmon harvest have improved its chances of survival.
These factors and others led the service to determine the Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal Chinook salmon currently faced no danger of extinction and weren’t likely to become endangered in the near future.
“This is a final action, and therefore, we are not soliciting public comments,” the service said.
