Judge upholds protections for Southern California steelhead trout

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has rejected a water agency’s challenge to endangered species protections for the Southern California steelhead trout.

“The court recognized the science showing the plight of this struggling fish and upheld the protections needed to stave off extinction,” said Evan Levy, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, in a written statement. “Development, dams and water diversions have threatened this species so deeply that only a handful of spawning southern steelhead have been seen in recent years. Now that these state protections have survived legal challenge, I’m looking forward to a new chapter for these remarkably complex fish.”

The Ventura County-based United Water Conservation District operates multiple dams in California, which conservation groups say prevent steelhead migration upstream. For years, the agency has challenged the state’s steelhead protections: first in 2023 over temporary protections, then again in 2025. Both petitions have now been rejected. The district has argued that the California’s Fish and Game Commission “relied upon incomplete and flawed data while ignoring better scientific evidence” in granting the steelhead endangered status.

On Friday, LA County Superior Court Judge Tiana Murillo rejected the district’s petition.

“The court affords special deference where a regulatory body, such as respondent or the department, exercises its particular expertise,” she wrote in a minute order.

The California steelhead is similar to rainbow trout. But whereas rainbow trout live their entirely lives in freshwater rivers and streams, steelheads hatch in freshwater, migrate to the ocean and then return to rivers to spawn. Once abundant, particularly in the LA River, the species has been pushed to the brink of extinction by the growth of urban areas — like LA, which encased its river in concrete. Climate change has also decreased the amount of habitat suitable for the steelhead to thrive in. According to a 2020 study, there had been only 177 documented sightings of Southern California steelhead in the previous 25 years.

It was placed on the federal endangered species list in 1997. The nonprofit group California Trout petitioned the state to add it to its own list, which offers broader protections, in 2021.

“The fish is at serious risk of extinction due to habitat destruction from poorly planned development and damaging water infrastructure," said Redgie Collins, vice president of legal and government affairs at California Trout, in a written statement. “The Southern steelhead is a resilient species, but it needs our help. This listing, backed by rigorous scientific data collection, is one key part of the puzzle needed for recovery.”

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