FORT WORTH, Texas � The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is seeking public comments on a draft recovery plan for the peppered chub, an endangered fish native to prairie rivers in the Southwest. The overall goal of the recovery plan is to support multiple self-sustaining peppered chub populations into the foreseeable future. A 30-day public comment period on the draft plan closes on Sept. 19, 2025.
The peppered chub was listed as endangered in 2022, with 872 river miles of critical habitat designated in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas for the species� conservation. Although the fish historically occurred in rivers across five states, the last remaining population is restricted to portions of the south Canadian River in northeastern New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.
The peppered chub is a small minnow, with adults growing to a maximum length of three inches. It has a transparent, slender body with dark dots scattered (or “peppered�) on its back. The species occurs in shallow, relatively wide, and braided channels, and requires unobstructed flowing water with adequate depths to support all life stages.
Threats to the fish include significant declines of its freshwater stream habitat such as river fragmentation and alterations from water diversions and impoundments. To support the conservation of the species, a captive propagation program is underway at the Service’s Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center in New Mexico.
Recovery plans are guidance documents and are not regulatory. Rather, they provide both a framework for guiding a species� recovery and the criteria we expect will indicate that federal protection is no longer necessary. The Service collaborates closely with states agencies to develop management and recovery strategies for the peppered chub. Specific recovery plan objectives include implementing a monitoring program, preventing habitat degradation, improving habitat quality, and reintroducing the chub to two historically occupied river segments.
The Service encourages the public, federal and state agencies, tribes, and other stakeholders to review and provide comments. Comments on this draft recovery plan will better inform the Service’s development of a Recovery Implementation Strategy, which will contain more specific, on-the-ground activities and tasks to achieve recovery of the species.
