Image: Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife/Flickr
Congratulations are in order for the Oregon chub. After its population dwindled to just 1,000 fish in its native Willamette River Valley in Western Oregon, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the minnow as an endangered species. A recovery plan was published in 1998, protected habitat was designated in 2010, and by April 2010 the chub improved from “Endangered” to merely “Threatened.” Yesterday, the chub left the endangered species list all together—the first fish to do so.
The USFWS is scheduled to announce Tuesday that the Oregon chub was recovered, 21 years after it went on the endangered species list, according to the Associated Press. The agency will monitor the fish for nine years to make sure the population—estimated today to be up to around 180,000—continues growing.
The Oregon chub are found in “slack water off-channel habitats,” shallow places where there is little water flow like beaver ponds, oxbows, backwater sloughs, and flooded marshes that used to braid across the Willamette Valley. European settlement of the area involved draining many of these places and controlling the flood plain to make way for towns, roads, and agriculture, which in turn also polluted the waters. Introduced species like bass and bullfrogs preyed on the chub and competed with it for food.
Image: USFWS Oregon Chub Recovery Plan 1998
One of requirements for delisting a species from the endangered species lists is ensuring that the species range and habitat isn’t threatened. Recovering aquatic habitat takes a long time, which is one reason that the Oregon chub is the first fish to leave the Endangered list. The USFWS worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers to manage the dams in such a way that more resembled the river’s natural flow, and worked with private landowners to introduce populations to their property.
Recovering the habitat didn't involve any high profile clashes with development or energy companies. Jon Moll, executive director of the McKenzie River Trust, also attributed some of the success to the chub's obscurity, because “there were none of the high stakes and big egos involved in charismatic species like wolves, grizzly bears and salmon.”
"We are better able to look at something that you can put in the hand of a little kid, and just reflects joy with the natural world," Moll told the AP.
Now that the minnow has stronger numbers, you can, if you’re so inclined, put one in the hand of a little kid without worrying that you’ve brought the Oregon chub that much closer to the brink of extinction.