
Groups ask feds to declare Goose Lake fish species endangered
Sam Ribakoff
(CN) — To try to save three declining fish species that live in a lake straddling the Oregon-California border, an environmental group filed a petition with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday asking the agency to declare the fish endangered.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity in its petition, the Goose Lake sucker, the Goose Lake lamprey and the Goose Lake tui chub are at risk of extinction because of the tripartite threat of agriculture, livestock grazing and climate change.
“These remarkable Goose Lake fish have adapted to a challenging environment and periodic droughts, but without protections they can’t survive the ravages of climate change, cattle grazing, and irrigation pumps,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the center, in a statement. “With increasing competition for water from livestock and agriculture, Endangered Species Act protections are critical to making sure these native Goose Lake fish survive.”
Those threats cause water to be diverted for agriculture and livestock, damaged habitats and stream and soil erosion from livestock grazing, dams, roads and culverts that block spawning fish migration into tributaries and drought, the center adds. The fish also have to compete with invasive fish species.
From 2007 to 2022, a severe drought caused the Goose Lake suckers and tui chub populations to decline dramatically, the center claims.
The Goose Lake sucker and the Goose Lake lamprey are tiny one-foot-long-fish that only live in the freshwaters of Goose Lake and its tributaries in south central Oregon and northeastern California.
“With climate change decreasing summer stream flows in key lamprey streams and increasing competition for water and riparian habitats between native fishes and human uses such as livestock and agriculture, Endangered Species Act protections are critical to the continued existence of the Goose Lake lamprey,” the center writes.
The Goose Lake tui chub, an even smaller fish that maxes out at about nine inches in length, also lives in the same region, but scientists are still figuring out if other populations might also live in more locations.
Already existing conservation plans that bring together landowners, state and federal agencies, conservation organizations and universities are inadequate, the center claims.
Instead, the center is asking the federal government to protect the fish under the Endangered Species Act and set aside critical and protected habitat in Goose Lake, including known and potential spawning and riparian habitats.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment.