GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — Federal fisheries biologists have agreed to consider Endangered Species Act protection for a second salmon species in the Klamath River running from Southern Oregon across Northern California.
NOAA Fisheries Service says in a notice to be published Tuesday in the Federal Register that it accepted a petition filed by conservation groups on behalf of spring chinook, once the most prized and numerous of the salmon returning to the upper Klamath and Trinity rivers.
The Center for Biological Diversity and others blamed the declines on dams, logging, mining, water diversions, and overfishing.
The decision comes as the U.S. Department of Interior studies whether to go through with a landmark agreement to remove four hydroelectric dams on the Klamath to help salmon.
Coho salmon in the Klamath are already a threatened species.
