Stop removing critical habitat for Southern California steelhead
Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; 12-Month Finding and Proposed Rule To Revise Critical Habitat Designation for Southern California Steelhead
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration· Santa Clara River, Hopper CreekFederal Register 2026-13076 ↗
The groups on this fight
4 groups work California
By footprint, from the same match the STAND matchmaker runs; none is linked to this decision in our record yet. Give straight to them; nothing routes through us.
- California Wilderness Coalition
Works California: spent years building the designation campaign with Tribal nations and now defends the monument as an intervenor in federal court.
- Friends of the Desert Mountains
Works California: coachella Valley land conservancy that helped establish Sand to Snow and worked with The Wildlands Conservancy on acquisitions inside the monument footprint..
- Friends of the Inyo
Works California: runs the Eastern Sierra opposition to the gold exploration projects around the Bodie Wilderness Study Area and hosts the Bodie Hills Conservation Partnership's donation and newsletter operations..
- Los Padres ForestWatch
Works California: has led opposition to oil drilling in the Los Padres region for two decades and is fighting the plan to reopen 400,000 acres to leasing.
Every group above is on STAND for Public Lands, with its court record, its filings and who backs it.
Federal regulators want to strip ESA protections from nine miles of river used by endangered steelhead salmon.
What’s at risk
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. Removing this protection could weaken the legal safeguards that limit harmful activities in this river reach.
If this goes through
That nine-mile stretch loses its critical habitat status permanently, reducing the legal protections that help keep the river viable for an endangered salmon species found nowhere else in Southern California.
Our plain-English read of the official notice ↗. Check it against the agency’s own words below.
4 holes in the agency’s own analysis
What the public could have raised, from the agency’s own document
- I oppose this action as proposed, and I ask the agency to weigh the specific harms below.
- NMFS is proposing to strip critical habitat protection from a 9-mile stretch of the Santa Clara River, from Hopper Creek to Santa Felicia Dam, that currently shields the endangered Southern California steelhead.
- Removing this reach from critical habitat designation weakens ESA protections for Southern California steelhead, a federally listed salmon species that depends on the Santa Clara River watershed.
- This proposal was triggered by a petition from the United Water Conservation District, a water agency with direct interests in this stretch of river between Hopper Creek and Santa Felicia Dam.
- Stripping critical habitat status from this 9-mile river reach removes a key legal tool for protecting clean water and fish passage for an endangered species in Southern California.
Show all 6 points from the document
- Say something only you can say. The law requires the agency to consider and respond to substantive comments, and specifics are what make a comment substantive.
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 reporting behind this
From More Than Just ParksIt’s referred to as Unit 346 in the Twin Mountain II Timber Sale. On the ground, it’s some of the most spectacular old growth we’ve ever witnessed, and it’s marked for clearcutting.
To document and do our part to save America’s greatest old growth forest
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