Emergency Endangered Species Act listing for imperiled Clear Lake hitch denied

A small fish that has important ecological and cultural significance to North Bay Native American communities has been rejected for emergency listing under the Endangered Species act.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is still moving forward with its formal evaluation of the Clear Lake hitch, and listing is still possible through the agency’s normal process. Its findings are expected in January 2025.

The fish, which grows to about a foot long and is only found in Clear Lake, is considered imperiled by Lake County tribes and the Center for Biological Diversity, which had petitioned for the emergency listing.

Michael Fris, field supervisor for the agency’s Sacramento office, said the chronic ills that challenge survival of the hitch are too numerous and insufficiently understood to suggest an emergency listing is appropriate.

“The emergency listing provision is effective when there is a clear threat that can be addressed expeditiously by regulatory authorities and has only been used a handful of times in the history of the Endangered Species Act,” Fris said in a news release.

He said that after investing more than $1.2 million in grant funds for monitoring, research and habitat restoration already, that U.S. Fish and Wildlife remains “committed to helping the Clear Lake hitch regardless of its federal listing status.”

Plentiful rainfall over the past four months may have given the species a bit of a break in any case, with spawning numbers so far this spring looking stronger than they have in years.

“It’s been going amazing,” said Karola Kennedy, interim environmental director and water resources manager for the Robinson Rancheria of Pomo Indians, “because there’s an amazing amount of water, and it continues to rain. … The conditions are totally conducive to not only the hitch spawning, but everything else.”

California Department of Fish and Wildlife Fish Biologist Ben Ewing, who has been monitoring Clear Lake hitch since 2014, said he’s never surveyed as many spawning fish as this year. He’s also counted more hitch in the lake using electrofishing equipment than he has since starting those surveys in 2019.

The problem isn’t solved by a single season, however, and the tributaries remain unpredictable, reaching waist-high level one day and running dry and stranding fish a few days later.

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot told the State Water Resources Control Board in March the hitch remained at “a perilous moment.”

Meg Townsend, senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said she was disappointed by the emergency listing decision, announced Tuesday, but unsurprised.

“This is definitely a frustrating decision, but unfortunately, it’s something that doesn’t surprise us, given that the service has kept repeating that it is not inclined to use the listing power of the Endangered Species Act to protect the Clear Lake hitch,” Townsend said.

“We knew when we were asking for emergency listing that it was kind of a big ask,” she added. “We fully believe it was warranted for the hitch, but we know it’s rare.”

The conservation group and local tribes have sought endangered species listing since 2012 for the hitch, or “chi,” as they are known to Indigenous people.

The federal Fish and Wildlife Service denied the petition in 2020.

The Center for Biological Diversity sued, and the agency agreed last year to reconsider listing the chi to settle the case — a move “compatible with where the data is taking us anyway,” Fris said several months ago.

The chi population, once abundant, has virtually collapsed in recent years, with surveys conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey turning up evidence of such poor reproductive success that many feared this spring would be the last chance for the chi to produce young.

The fish, which grow to more than a foot long and almost a pound in weight, live about six years, spawning in shallow, gravely tributaries around Clear Lake that have been disturbed and altered over time by mining, water diversions, development, human-made barriers and, especially recently, drought.

The tules around the lake shore where they mature also have diminished substantially. Other threats include competition from invasive fish species and water quality issues.

The last year any significant number of juveniles was samples in the lake was 2017, according to USGS data.

The last chance for those fish to reproduce before dying is this spring.

The recognition of their situation mobilized local tribes for whom the chi are a cultural touchstone and traditional food source to reach out to the state Fish and Wildlife Department and the California Fish and Game Commission, which last winter agreed to an emergency summit on the issue.

In December, the tribes and Center for Biological Diversity submitted their petition for emergency listing.

HitchEmergencyPetition.pdf

Both the state Fish and Wildlife Commission and the 15-member Blue Ribbon Committee for the Rehabilitation of Clear Lake, which was create by state legislation in 2017, also have requested emergency listing for hitch. It has been listed as threatened with extinction under the California Endangered Species Act since 2014.

The State Water Resources Control Board and Department of Water Resources also became involved in the effort to ensure that water quality and, particularly, surface water supplies were not put at risk during spawning season by illegal or unnecessary water diversions or groundwater withdrawals.

Townsend said much of that attention and investment in training, monitoring and groundwork was a result of the emergency petition, so in that respect, it helped the hitch.

That’s what’s most important, Kennedy said.

“To me, saving the hitch is about being on the ground and doing the work. Every else is just political.”

Townsend said she still hopes the chi will be listed in two years, despite the denial of an emergency listing.

“It’s a bummer, but it’s not surprising,” she said, “and we’re really hopeful that the Fish and Wildlife Service will do what’s necessary and list the hitch in 2025.”

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MaryCallahanB.