Center for Biological Diversity sues over Clear Lake hitch protections

The Center for Biological Diversity has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for missing its January 2026 deadline to decide whether to protect Clear Lake hitch under the Endangered Species Act. The agency proposed listing the hitch as threatened in January 2025. The lawsuit asks the court to make the agency issue a final decision.

The hitch swim up Clear Lake’s tributaries to spawn, and Cole Creek is one of them. The county’s Cole Creek planning is funded as hitch habitat work, so what happens to the hitch matters for our creek too.