Revised Recovery Plan for the Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker

The goal of our recovery program is to arrest the decline and enhance Lost River sucker and shortnose sucker populations so that Endangered Species Act protection is no longer necessary. Demographic-based and threats-based objectives will facilitate recovery and enable attainment of the recovery goal. Demographic-based objectives include increasing larval production, individual survival and recruitment to Revised Lost River Sucker and Shortnose Sucker Recovery Plan spawning populations, and therefore abundance in spawning populations. The objectives of restoring spawning and nursery habitat, expanding reproduction, reducing the negative impacts from water quality on all life stages, clarifying the effects of other species on all life stages, reducing entrainment, and establishing auxiliary populations comprise the threats-based objectives. The recovery strategy is intended to produce and document healthy, self-sustaining populations by reduction of mortality, restoration of habitat, including spawning, larval and juvenile habitats, and increasing connectivity between spawning and rearing habitats. It also involves ameliorating adverse effects of degraded water quality, disease, and non-native fish. The plan provides areas of emphasis and guidelines to direct recovery actions. Recent, 5-year status reviews for each species assigned a recovery priority number of 4C for both species (USFWS 2007a, b). However, shortnose sucker were inaccurately assigned given that they do not belong to a monotypic genus.