
Orgs Sue NMFS Over Pace Of Olympic Peninsula Steelhead Listing Petition Review
Two litigious environmental organizations are suing the National Marine Fisheries Service over the speed at which their request to list Olympic Peninsula steelhead under the Endangered Species Act is being considered.

Washington’s state fish, which supports recreational and tribal fisheries in the Hoh, Queets, Quinault, Quillayute and elsewhere on the West End, were found to be at “moderate risk of extinction” here last fall following an August 2022 petition filed by The Conservation Angler of Edmonds and Wild Fish Conservancy of Duvall.
But the two groups say that the feds are now over 530 days late in proposing a presumed listing, and so they sued the agency in mid-January “to cause NMFS to issue this overdue determination.”
They’re asking a federal judge to declare that NMFS has violated ESA by not issuing a “timely” 12-month finding, order the agency to do so “by a reasonable date certain,” grant any injunctive relief motions they may have, and award attorney’s fees.
NMFS had no comment on the lawsuit filed in US District Court for Western Washington.

Petitioning the feds to list a particular species kicks off a multi-step process featuring several reviews and potential offramps. First comes an initial 90-day review and if it yields a “positive” finding, it’s followed by what’s known as a 12-month deep dive, due a year after a petition is filed.
In the case of OlyPen steelhead, the initial 90-day “may be warranted” finding issued in early 2023 led to mid-November 2024’s determination of moderate risk by a federal status review team.
Afterwards, NMFS was slated to evaluate ongoing and proposed steelhead conservation efforts to figure out if they may reduce threats to the population and the degree of certainty around their implementation.

That’s where we are at today, and that will either lead to a finding that listing the “crown jewels” of Washington’s angling world is not warranted or the feds will propose doing so and call for public comment before posting a final listing rule to the Federal Register or withdrawing it.
NMFS could also issue a “warranted but precluded” determination because of higher priorities.
For WFC and TCA, which frequently file lawsuits against NMFS and other fishery managers, the pace hasn’t been fast enough.
“The last thing we want is to be spending time litigating, but the urgency of this issue gives us no alternative,” said Emma Helverson, WFC executive director, in a press release. “Every day of inaction allows the threats facing these fish to intensify, making their survival and recovery even harder to achieve.”
A 2023 E&E News article describes such deadline-centered lawsuits as “a slam dunk” for the plaintiffs.
“As the administrative agency, you don’t have any defense,” former U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe told the energy and environmental news outlet. “You either made the deadline or you didn’t. You’re standing in front of a federal judge, and it’s like a yes-or-no question.”
Whether this latest lawsuit spurs NMFS under the Trump Administration to move faster or in the meanwhile results in another relatively low-hanging payday for the plaintiffs remains to be seen, but in determining Olympic Peninsula steelhead were at moderate risk of extinction, the federal status review team last fall pointed to climate change, inadequate protective regulations and overutilization as the top threats, followed by habitat loss, effects from stocking nonlocal hatchery fish and disease/predation.
Elsewhere in Washington, steelhead are federally listed in Puget Sound and portions of the Columbia River. They’re managed by WDFW under a statewide management plan.