Support Federal Habitat Protections for Alameda Creek Steelhead Trout

Federal Protection Denied for Alameda Creek Trout

December 23, 2005 update:

The National Marine Fisheries Service today announced final Endangered Species Act (ESA) listing decisions for 10 populations of west coast steelhead trout, including Alameda Creek steelhead, which are part of the Central California Coast (CCC) population. NMFS’ decision reaffirms the threatened status of CCC
steelhead, which were originally listed under the ESA in August 1997, but excludes resident rainbow trout and landlocked steelhead trout above dams. NMFS had proposed in June of 2005 to include resident trout and some landlocked steelhead, including those in Alameda Creek, as part of the CCC steelhead trout population based on genetic evidence that Alameda Creek’s resident fish are similar to adult ocean-run steelhead. The ACA is looking into a legal challenge of this flawed listing and exclusion from critical habitat. Other conservation and fishing groups will likely challenge the new listing policy as well.

Read the ACA press release on the listing decision.

Read the ACA comments on the new listing policy.

Read comments by the Environmental Defense Center, Center for Biological Diversity and California Trout on why NMFS's new policy is scientifically unjustified, arbitrary, and unlawful.

In 2004 NMFS completed status reviews for 26 West Coast salmon populations (chum, coho, chinook, pink, sockeye and anadromous steelhead and resident rainbow trout) listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), including steelhead trout in the Central California Coast. In June, 2004, NMFS proposed to list resident rainbow trout in Alameda Creek and landlocked steelhead trout in Calaveras and San Antonio Reservoirs as threatened under the ESA.

The NOAA Fisheries listing proposal can be viewed here. References to Alameda Creek are on pages 18 and page 62.

Read the ACA press release from June 2004 on the proposed listing.

Genetic analysis shows that resident rainbow trout and landlocked steelhead trout in the Alameda Creek watershed are are genetically related to listed wild steelhead trout in the Central California Coast. The City of San Francisco opposed the trout listing, relying on an "anonymous" critique of the gentic evidence.

Read the ACA comment letters from January 2004 and October 2004 on why resident trout should be listed.

Critical Habitat Proposed for Alameda Creek:

In 2005 the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed critical habitat designations for 20 populations of Pacific salmon and steelhead (including anadromous steelhead and resident rainbow trout in Alameda Creek) listed under the Endangered Species Act. Critical habitat offers protection under the ESA to habitat considered essential to the protection and recovery of listed species, including habitat not currently occupied, but where reintroduction could occur. Critical habitat only applies to federal lands, federal agency actions, or private lands where a federal permit is sought. The intent of critical habitat is to ensure that no federal agency is impeding recovery of a listed species.

NMFS has proposed re-designating all of Alameda Creek and tributaries that support rainbow trout or could support steelhead (such as Arroyo Mocho, lower Arroyo las Positas, lower Arroyo Valle, Arroyo de la Laguna, Sinbad Creek, Stonybrook Creek, and Arroyo Hondo Creek) as “critical habitat” for Central California Coast steelhead trout.

NMFS originally designated critical habitat for salmon and steelhead in 2000, including much of the Alameda Creek watershed as critical habitat for Central California Coast steelhead. The protections were removed in 2003 due to lawsuit by the National Association of Homebuilders. A subsequent lawsuit (by the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Oregon Natural Resources Council, the Pacific Rivers Council, and the Environmental Protection Information Center) resulted in the current critical habitat proposal.

The current proposal cuts more than 80% of the original critical habitat designations for west coast salmon and steelhead trout. It leaves intact almost all of the original critical habitat designation for the Alameda Creek watershed, but NMFS is considering excluding many areas from the final designation based on existing land management plans and policies, voluntary conservation efforts and other factors. Encourage NMFS to designate all stream reaches in the Alameda Creek watershed that are potential habitat for steelhead or rainbow trout as critical habitat (upper Alameda Creek above the Alameda Diversion Dam and tributaries to San Antonio Reservoir are not currently included).

The proposed 80% cut in critical habitat designations will impact the opportunity for restoration and recovery in many watersheds in California. Save the Bay has a sample comment letter on the critical habitat proposal.

Information on critical habitat proposal by the Salmonid Restoration Federation.

NMFS to Include Hatchery Fish in Assessing Wild Salmon and Steelhead Runs:

The National Marine Fisheries Service decided in June 2005 that more than 130 strains of hatchery salmon will remain protected under the Endangered Species Act in the Northwest. The announcement comes after NMFS promised last year that it would begin to count hatchery-bred fish along with wild-spawning salmon when considering whether to protect the fish. The decision could make it easier for the government to remove runs from protection because counting hatchery fish could exaggerate the health of a particular salmon population. The Ecological Society of America has issued comments on hatchery-bred salmon.