Wild Steelhead Endangered In Seven Areas Report Lists Oregon Coast And All Rivers In California

Wild steelhead salmon in at least seven areas in Washington, Oregon and California are depleted enough to qualify for protection under the Endangered Species Act, a federal panel has decided.

Steelhead are in danger of extinction in Columbia River tributaries upstream from the Tri-Cities and in six other areas, including the entire Oregon coast and all rivers in California in which the fish are found, according to a preliminary report by an 11-member scientific team for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Only around Puget Sound and the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state are non-hatchery steelhead neither in danger of extinction nor likely to become endangered soon, the report said.

The panel reached no conclusion on tributaries of the lower Columbia River, Grays Harbor and Willapa Bay; tributaries of the Columbia from the Cascade Mountains to the Tri-Cities; the Snake River basin and a fourth unit in Oregon.

The agency began reviewing the state of steelhead stocks in 13 areas after a petition for listing under the act was filed last year by 16 environmental and fishing groups.

A formal decision on listing is expected this summer, said Brian Gorman, a spokesman for the agency.

A copy of the confidential 60-page report, dated Feb. 3, was obtained by Washington Trout of Duvall. The group’s director, Kurt Beardslee, criticized the findings on Puget Sound, including a decision to consider winter and summer runs together rather than separately.

“Almost all the summer populations we have are in trouble,” Beardslee said. “How can they say an ocean-maturing fish (winter steelhead) is the same as a streammaturing fish (summer steelhead)?”