The comeback of Oregon chub: no longer endangered species

A little fish makes a big comeback.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Friday changed the Endangered Species Act classification of the Oregon chub from endangered to threatened, reflecting the species' rebound from the brink of extinction thanks to state, federal and private efforts.

The status of the Oregon chub, a minnow found only in the Willamette Valley, has improved substantially and existing threats are not likely to put the chub in danger of extinction in the foreseeable future, a recent review found.

The Fish and Wildlife Service listed the chub as endangered in 1993 after receiving a petition with conclusive data citing a 98 percent reduction in the range of the species.

A recovery plan for Oregon chub established criteria for changing its status to threatened (downlisting) and for removing it from the list of endangered and threatened species. The plan recommended specific recovery actions that would protect existing sites, establish new populations, research the chub's ecology and increase public involvement. The recovery plan determined that the species should be considered for reclassification to threatened when 10 populations of at least 500 fish were distributed throughout the species' range, with a stable or increasing trend for at least five years. This goal has been exceeded, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The Oregon chub is a small minnow, less than 3.5 inches long, and is found only in the Willamette River Basin in western Oregon. The chub has an olive-colored back, grading to silver on the sides and white on the belly. Oregon chub thrive in slack water habitats such as beaver ponds, oxbows, side channels, backwater sloughs, low gradient tributaries and flooded marshes which provide abundant aquatic vegetation for hiding and spawning cover. In wild populations, Oregon chub live up to nine years.