Ancient lake sturgeon face new threat from climate change despite tribal conservation victories

In a moving ceremony on northern Wisconsin’s Clam Lake, members of the St. Croix Chippewa Tribe recently released thousands of six-month-old lake sturgeon into the wild—marking a significant milestone in their conservation efforts. After offering prayers to their ancestors, tribal members carefully poured buckets of the young fish from their newly constructed hatchery into the lake waters, representing the latest success in what has become one of North America’s most remarkable freshwater conservation stories.

Lake sturgeon are truly living fossils, having survived on Earth for more than 150 million years—predating even the dinosaurs. These massive, ancient fish once thrived throughout the Great Lakes region but faced near-extinction due to overfishing and habitat destruction in the 19th and 20th centuries. Thanks to dedicated restoration efforts by Indigenous tribes and conservation partners, sturgeon populations have been slowly recovering across their historic range.

However, researchers are now sounding alarm bells about a new threat that could undermine decades of painstaking conservation work: climate change. Rising water temperatures, altered precipitation patterns, and shifting seasonal cycles are creating unprecedented challenges for these ancient survivors. The same changing weather conditions that affect many species are proving particularly problematic for lake sturgeon, which have specific temperature and timing requirements for successful reproduction and survival.

The irony is striking—just as tribal nations celebrate hard-won victories in bringing these magnificent fish back from the brink, climate change threatens to stress the sturgeon’s legendary ability to adapt and survive in an rapidly changing world.