Tribes to co-manage California’s biggest lake, protect its sacred fish

Seven Native American tribes signed an agreement with state agencies and local government on Sept. 11 to formally co-manage Clear Lake, California’s biggest lake. The lake is battling mercury contamination, algal blooms and predatory invasive fish, putting the fish unique to the watershed — including the Clear Lake hitch, a vital animal for the region’s Indigenous people — in danger of extinction. 

The tribes around the lake have spent years advocating for the Clear Lake hitch, and hope the agreement “will turn their ad hoc emergency work — which has coincided with an increase of [Clear Lake hitch] in the lake — into a lasting strategy to protect the fish,” Noah Haggerty writes for the LA Times.

California launched an initiative in 2026 to bring 7% of California's lands and waters under the care of tribes. The Sept. 11 agreement is the first one governing a watershed.