June 13, 2007: Upper Columbia River steelhead were reinstated to endangered status per U.S. District Court decision. This ruling is under appeal.
Feb. 1, 2006: NOAA Fisheries Service announced its final Endangered Species Act Section 4(d) rule for upper Columbia River steelhead. The agency listed these fish as "endangered" in 1997 and they were thereby afforded protections against ‘‘take’’ under the ESA. On Jan. 5, 2006, NOAA Fisheries Service changed the listing status of upper Columbia River steelhead to threatened, and applied the protective regulations for threatened West Coast salmon and steelhead to this population.
Dec. 23, 2005: NOAA Fisheries Service announced final Endangered Species Act listing decisions for 10 populations of West Coast steelhead. These findings are part of the agency’s commitment, begun in 2002, to update all of its salmon and steelhead listing determinations, consistent with a September 2001 district court’s order. This final listing determinations included:
- Affirming proposals to list 10 populations of steelhead under the ESA
- Maintaining the existing listing status for 9 of the steelhead populations
- Changing the listing status to threatened for one steelhead population previously listed as endangered.
One change brought about by these comments was the application by NOAA Fisheries Service of the distinct population segment (DPS) policy to delineate steelhead populations, rather than the evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) policy. The change was consistent with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's approach to making listing determinations.