It may be small in size but the Oregon Chub is making history. It has been successfully rescued from the Federal Endangered Species List, where it was included in 1993 and subsequently reclassified as threatened in 2010.
It's the first fish to accomplish such a feat, and federal and state officials attribute the achievement to a collaborative effort. The small minnow lives in Oregon's Willamette River Basin and landed on the endangered list due to a loss of habitat and predatory threats.
At the time of listing, there were just eight populations, with less than 1,000 fish, in the basin. Now, there are more than 140,000 fish at 80 locations.
"This proves the Endangered Species Act can work when people pull together to accomplish a shared goal," said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. "This effort succeeded because of an extraordinary partnership between federal and state agencies, landowners and other stakeholders. We all pulled together to bring back a species from the brink of extinction in just over 20 years."
The minnow is the 29th species to be successfully recovered and removed from the endangered listing. There are three other Oregon native species also well on the road to sustainable recovery: the Modoc sucker, Borax Lake chub and Columbian white tail deer.
Federal officials attribute the chub's resurgence as a species to community involvement as private landowners played a key role by allowing habitats on lands to reintroduce the species.
"It has been an exciting experience to know that we had a small part in helping in the recovery of this tiny fish," said Gail Haws, the first private landowner to sign onto a Programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement. "It is not often that one sees results from such a project with so many people, so much energy given to save a part of the environment."
The Oregon chub is a minor in the Cyprinid family and big prey for animals such as the great blue heron. They are typically found in marshes and beaver ponds, which are slackwater and off-channel habitats with little water flow and dense aquatic vegetation.
