Threatened Oregon Fish Brought Back from Brink of Extinction

Culminating a 20-year partnership among state and federal agencies and private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 4 proposes to remove the Oregon chub from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. If the proposal is made final, the chub would be the first fish delisted due to recovery.

Culminating a 20-year partnership among state and federal agencies and private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) February 4 proposed to remove the Oregon chub from the list of endangered and threatened wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. If the proposal is made final, the chub (shown above) would be the first fish delisted due to recovery.

This fish was listed as endangered in 1993 and reclassified as threatened in 2010. The primary factors that threatened it were loss of habitat and predation by nonnative fishes. These threats have been lessened over the last 20 years through partnership. Just eight known populations with fewer than 1,000 fish were known to exist at the time of listing. Today, the population stands at more than 150,000 fish at 80 locations, USFWS said.

The Endangered Species Act, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in December 2013, has helped to stop the slide toward extinction for hundreds of species. Twenty-six species have been successfully recovered and removed from the Endangered Species List.