Action timeline

October 1, 1993 – The Biodiversity Legal Foundation, now merged with the Center, petitioned for federal listing of Atlantic salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

November 17, 2000 – The Gulf of Maine population of Atlantic salmon was listed as endangered.

November 29, 2005 – A recovery plan for the Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon population was published.

May 2005 – Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, Maine Toxics Action Coalition, and Douglas Watts petitioned to list the Kennebec River population of Atlantic salmon under the Endangered Species Act.

December 15, 2006 – The Center and the Conservation Law Foundation of New England filed a lawsuit to compel designation of critical habitat for the Gulf of Maine population. Responding to the May 2005 petition, the Fish and Wildlife Service found that protection was warranted for the Kennebec River population — but the Service failed  to act.

May 12, 2008 – The Center, Friends of Merrymeeting Bay, and a Maine river activist sued the Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Division for failure to take action on protecting Kennebec River Atlantic salmon.

September 3, 2008 – In response to the Center's May lawsuit and our allies' 2005 petition, the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Fisheries Service proposed to list Atlantic salmon in the Kennebec, Androscoggin, and Penobscot rivers as endangered.

September 5, 2008 – In response to our 2006 lawsuit, filed with the Conservation Law Foundation of New England, the administration proposed to designate just more than 12,000 river miles and 214 acres of lake habitat as critical habitat for the Atlantic salmon.

June 16, 2009 – The administration expanded Endangered Species Act protections to include salmon in the Kennebec, Androscoggin, and Penobscot rivers. The salmon also earned about 12,000 river miles and 300 miles of lakes as additional designated critical habitat.

Photo by William Hartley, USFWS