OC makes Comment to list Upper Klamath-Trinity River Spring Chinook Salmon as ENDANGERED under the California Endangered Species Act

On June 16, 2021, the California Fish and Game Commission will consider whether to place Klamath-Trinity Spring Chinook (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and the northern California summer steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss irideus) on the state’s Endangered Species List. Listing would afford new protections and opportunities to fund habitat restoration on the species, which are both facing astronomical declines in populations from more than a century of dam building, irrigation diversions, mining, and logging.

As Klamath River runs have declined, SRKW females continue failing to rear calves successfully. It is likely that abundance of spring run Chinook is more important to SRKWs than fall run Chinook, and that Chinook is more important than coho -- although the health of all these runs is vital towards SRKW recovery. Additionally, when these fish return to rivers to spawn and die, they transport ocean nutrients inland providing an important source of protein and nitrogen to forest ecosystems.