![]() More than half are in the Middle Fork Eel River alone. Today, fewer than a thousand adult summer steelhead return to streams in California. The fisheries agencies say summer steelhead are not reproductively isolated enough from winter steelhead to list.īut one key piece of evidence they point to - a relatively high proportion of fish that have both winter and summer-return genes - is a result of the collapse of summer steelhead populations, even relative to winter steelhead populations, over the 20th century. Unfortunately, DFW then follows the lead of the federal National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), which has denied petitions to list Klamath Spring chinook and Northern California summer steelhead. DFW’s status review affirms that summer steelhead, for example, are “an important diversity component … that should be preserved.” DFW concedes as well that run timing in spring chinook and summer steelhead is largely determined by the recently identified genes, and that it is important to maintain these life histories. ![]() The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) agreed in its status reviews of Klamath spring chinook and Northern California summer steelhead that remaining populations of these fish are tiny fractions of their historic numbers, and that they face a range of severe threats including climate change. Following the best available science, our petitions to list these extraordinary fish under California law argued that if we do not effectively protect remaining populations of spring chinook and summer steelhead, we will lose the critical genetic information that drives their unique life histories. ![]() Recent genetic research has shown these remarkable life histories are driven by differences in a singular, very small part of the salmonid genome. These unique life histories allow them to reach prime spawning and rearing habitats in the cool waters of our mountain streams. ![]() Spring Chinook and summer steelhead return to freshwater much earlier than their fall-run Chinook and winter-run steelhead counterparts. At its Jmeeting, the California Fish and Game Commission will decide whether to protect Klamath Spring Chinook salmon and Northern California summer steelhead under the California Endangered Species Act. ![]()
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