Three Santa Barbara County groups representing farmers and ranchers have asked a federal agency to remove the Santa Maria River’s designation as critical habitat for the Southern California steelhead amid a debate over whether the endangered fish exists in the waterway. 

The Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business–Santa Barbara County, the Santa Barbara County Farm Bureau and the Santa Barbara County Cattlemen’s Association joined with Pacific Legal Foundation to submit the request in early October. 

The petition — approximately 70 pages long — to the National Marine Fisheries Service contends the Southern California steelhead trout migration in the river ceased in the 1940s. 

“Petitioners have been on record for many years objecting to the designation of the Santa Maria River as critical habitat for the steelhead,” Damien Schiff, PLF senior attorney wrote in the complaint.

“Designating the river as critical habitat for steelhead (or for that matter any fish) is unsupportable given the river is dry for over 90% of the year, and its floodplain is highly manipulated,” Schiff added.

Multiple organizations, including the Environment Defense Center, are expected to oppose the removal of critical habitat designation. 

“This is an effort to piggyback on the Trump administration’s campaign to dismantle the Endangered Species Act, and to do so by allowing destruction of the endangered species habitats,” said Brian Trautwein, EDC senior analyst and Watershed Program director.

“They can’t survive without their habitat, so it’s important to not just protect the fish but also the habitat they live in.”

The Santa Maria River is considered an important waterway for this species, now believed to be one of the rarest fish in the entire United States, Trautwein said. 

The designation carries a price tag, reportedly as high as $30 million, felt in the local economy and by members of the three groups, according to the Pacific Legal Foundation.

The ag groups’ petition contends the economic benefits to be gained by excluding the Santa Maria River “vastly outweigh the conservation benefits of retaining what is, at best, vehicle low-value unoccupied habitat.”

They also contend steelhead did not occupy the river at the time it landed on the Endangered Species Act list in 1997. 

“Simply put, the Santa Maria River does not today and likely will never again contain the physical or biological features essential to the steelhead’s conservation,” Pacific Legal said.

Steelhead return from the ocean into freshwater streams to spawn, or reproduce, so a suitable habitat is crucial for the species.

While most people see a dry river for a large part of the year, the rainy season puts water in the tributaries feeding into the Santa Maria River and flowing to the ocean. 

When rain starts and the river is flowing, the steelhead travel from the ocean to get to the spawning grounds up in the Sisquoc River. 

The farmers and ranchers argued the river lacks the essential features to be considered a steelhead migratory corridor for several reasons, including decades of wildfires in the mountains east of Santa Maria.

The fires sent debris and sediment into the channel, making the river unsuitable for steelhead.   

But environmental groups contend the river has been occupied by steelhead more recently.

“Los Padres National Forest biologists have documented resident steelhead in the Sisquoc River in recent years — that’s the main tributary to the Santa Maria River — as well as in Manzana Creek and other tributaries,” Trautwein said. 

Ocean-run steelhead were documented in Manzana Creek in 2025. The only way the migratory species could have reached the waterway would be by passing through the Santa Maria River.

“The evidence shows the species is still present in the Santa Maria River watershed, although greatly reduced in number,” he said, adding that he observed adult steelhead in Manzana Creek in 2011.

The Santa Maria River serves as a critical migratory route for the species to complete its life cycle, he added. 

A petition for delisting will undergo a 90-day review. The Endangered Species Act requires federal officials to determine if supporters provided substantial information to reconsider the decision. 

If the review ends with the decision to reconsider the critical habitat designation, the finding would be published in the Federal Register requesting scientific and commercial information from the public, according to Michael Milstein, NOAA Fisheries public information officer.

The federal agency has 12 months from the petition date to determine if the revision is warranted, he added.

If deemed warranted, NOAA would publish the proposal to make the change and solicit public comment. 

Federal officials would consider public input and decide whether to end the critical-habitat designation. A final rule is typically adopted within one year of the proposed rule change, Milstein added.