Recovering an endangered southwestern fish called the peppered chub could cost an estimated $73 million and take 30 years or longer to accomplish, according to a new Fish and Wildlife Service proposal.
The schedule is iffy, the draft species recovery plan cautions, because it depends on contingencies that include full federal funding, successful proposal implementation and what the FWS calls the “full cooperation” of partners.
“The total cost of recovery stated in this plan is only a rough estimate and may change substantially as efforts to recover the species continue,” the draft recovery plan notes.
But if all this comes together, the federal agency says, the fish can eventually wiggle out of the endangered designation it received in 2022. Its listing under the Endangered Species Act was accompanied by the designation of 872 river miles of critical habitat in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
