Washington State's 'Forgotten Salmon' One Step Closer to Protection
The US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today that the petition filed in July by TU and a broad coalition of fishing, conservation and governmental organizations to protect Lake Sammamish kokanee salmon under the Endangered Species Act carries sufficient information to merit a one-year review of the landlocked sockeye salmon's status. The USFWS will spend the next year gathering information to make its final listing decision. Lake Sammamish lies just west of Seattle. The kokanee are native to the lake, and their populations have plummeted to dangerously low levels in recent years due to loss of spawning habitat and development pressures.
Chapter update
US Fish & Wildlife Service press release
Petitioner's press release
Federal register notice
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