The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) has released a draft recovery plan for the peppered chub and is asking for input from individuals, state agencies, municipal governments and tribes the plan could affect. Recovery plans like this one aren't regulatory, but they outline practices that could help a species get off the endangered species list.
Part of the plan would restore the Cimarron River, Lower South Canadian River and Arkansas River in Oklahoma so peppered chubs could be reintroduced. Those rivers have become tricky for the fish to survive in since the mid-1900s.
Peppered chubs thrive in clean, shallow, slow-moving rivers, like the prairie braided streams that used to wind across Oklahoma. Modern water management practices have dammed parts of those streams into reservoirs and isolated them from their historic floodplains. Invasive plant species like saltcedars and certain types of reeds have also made some areas hostile to the chubs.
The recovery plan proposes controlling invasive species that hurt the peppered chub's chances and developing new water management strategies that would make the rivers wider, shallower and cleaner. It suggests federal agencies could work with local governments and residents to make sure they maintain adequate water supplies while minimizing new dams.
Once the rivers are all set up for their arrival, the USFWS could introduce peppered chubs back into their historical ranges in Oklahoma and the surrounding states.
The proposed plan to restore the peppered chub would take 30 years and cost around $71 million to implement, according to the USFWS's estimates.
The recovery plan and more information about the peppered chub are available from the USFWS.
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