Comments closed August 28
Stop removing critical habitat for Southern California steelhead
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration · Santa Clara River, Hopper Creek
- What
- Federal regulators want to strip ESA protections from nine miles of river used by endangered steelhead salmon.
- Where
- Santa Clara River, Hopper Creek, Santa Felicia Dam, CA
- How much
- A nine-mile stretch of the Santa Clara River, from Hopper Creek to Santa Felicia Dam, is at risk of losing its critical habitat designation for the endangered Southern California steelhead.
- Decided
- Comments closed August 28, 2026. No decision document is on file yet.Date from Federal Register ↗, read June 30, 2026.
Where these four lines come from
- WhatOur plain-English read of the Federal Register 2026-13076 ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words under Case.
- WhereThe places and states the notice names, as PLAN read them.
- How muchThe first sentence of our What’s at risk read of the notice; the whole read is under Case.
- DecidedAugust 28, 2026, from Federal Register, the document’s comment close date (federalregister.gov) ↗. Read June 30, 2026. The decision document is the one on file in PLAN’s record.
- Read from PLAN’s record November 10, 2026.
Samuel D. Rauch III
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service
A person signed this, not an agency. The window has closed and the signature stands, which is exactly when accountability matters.
NOAA Fisheries Directorate
Assistant Administrator of Fisheries
Short is better. You are asking the Assistant Administrator of Fisheries to answer for a decision their office made.
My name is [your name] and I'm calling from [your city and state]. Samuel D. Rauch III, Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service, signed the decision on Stop removing critical habitat for Southern California steelhead. I'm asking the NOAA Fisheries Directorate to withdraw that decision and require full environmental review before anything proceeds. Please record that I called and tell me what the office intends to do.
Official channels only, about this decision. No personal phone numbers, no home addresses, no personal social accounts, and nothing abusive. The point is to make the office answer, and an abusive call is the one thing that lets it off the hook.
What the proposal said, and what the decision did
No figure from the proposal has been checked against the decision on this fight yet. What the record does hold is the issues ledger below.
No decision document is on PLAN’s record for this fight yet. When the agency’s decision lands, what it answered goes here.
PLAN's read: high threat
Federal regulators want to strip ESA protections from nine miles of river used by endangered steelhead salmon.
What’s at risk
If this goes through
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
In the agency’s own words
We, NMFS, announce a 12-month finding on a petition to revise the critical habitat designation under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for the Southern California steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) distinct population segment (DPS). The petition from the United Water Conservation District (UWCD) requests the removal of an approximately 9-mile (14.5-kilometer (km)) stream reach from the confluence of Hopper Creek and the Santa Clara River to the face of Santa Felicia Dam. Based on our review of the best scientific and commercial data available, we find that the petitioned action to remove this reach from the critical…
The groups on this fight
One group is in on this fight
In on this fight means a link on this decision itself: the group's own regulations.gov comment on it, or a case filed over it naming the group; predicted likely to care is a guess from the group's sourced work in California, with no link to this decision. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- Los Padres ForestWatch
In on this fight · linked
Filed its own comment on this decision on August 28, 2026.
Their comment on regulations.gov ↗ - California Wilderness Coalition
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Chuckwalla National Monument, California: Spent years building the designation campaign with Tribal nations and now defends the monument as an intervenor in federal court.
- Death Valley Conservancy
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Death Valley National Park, California: A nonprofit partner of Death Valley National Park.
- Joshua Tree National Park Association
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Joshua Tree National Park, California: A nonprofit partner of Joshua Tree National Park.
- Yosemite Conservancy
Predicted likely to care · a guess
Yosemite National Park, California: A nonprofit partner of Yosemite National Park.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Who signs it
Samuel D. Rauch III
Deputy Assistant Administrator for Regulatory Programs, National Marine Fisheries Service
Where the notice says so
The ground
The window has closed, so there’s no watch to set on it here.
In court on this ground
This fight isn’t bound to a land unit in PLAN’s record yet, so there are no court cases to show for its ground.
Who holds the vote
PLAN’s record doesn’t tie a member of Congress to this fight yet. The scorecard grades the votes and bills that decide public lands; nothing joins a vote or a bill to this decision, so there’s no member to name here without guessing.
See how your members vote ↗Know an open comment period we are missing, or spotted a wrong deadline? .
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