USFWS Downlists Razorback Sucker After Colorado River Recovery Work

Here is a conservation win that came from decades of actual wildlife work, not internet outrage.

USFWS has finalized a rule downlisting the razorback sucker from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The native Colorado River basin fish was listed as endangered in 1991 and is known for the bony keel behind its head. It can grow longer than three feet and push ten pounds.

The agency says the move reflects more than 30 years of cooperative recovery work across the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program, and Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program, along with state, tribal, federal, private, and nonprofit partners.

The numbers tell the story. Razorback suckers are now found in eight populations. Four populations can migrate and spawn in multiple locations. The largest population, in the Green River portion of the upper Colorado River basin, is estimated at about 36,000 adults, up from roughly 100 wild fish in the late 1990s.

The fish is not out of trouble. USFWS says altered flows, limited nursery habitat, drought, water quality and quantity issues, and predation by nonnative species remain serious threats. But moving a species from endangered to threatened is proof that habitat work, stocking, nonnative fish control, monitoring, and long-term management can move the needle. Conservation should be measured by results, and this is a result worth recognizing.