Klamath Lake Suckers Stay On Endangered List
June 26, 2009 1:01 PM
(AP) The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service says the Lost River and shortnosed suckers - two fish at the heart of water battles in the Klamath Basin - still deserve to be on the endangered species list.
The agency's Sacramento, Calif., office announced today that a new petition filed this year offered no new information to change a decision that it made in 2004 and reaffirmed in 2007 and 2008. The petition was filed by water rights attorney James Buchal of Portland.
The suckers live primarily in Upper Klamath Lake, which is the primary reservoir of a federal irrigation project that has had to shut off water to farms in times of drought to maintain habitat for the fish.
