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r~emorandum hlle 9, 1980 Page 2 Act and explained how this Act set national policy with regard to augmentation of the Colorado River for the Mexican Treaty delivery 'abligation. The Forest Service personnel expressed great apprecia- cion for the summary, and requested that I give them a write-up of this material whic::h they can place in their reports for justifica- tion for a water yield improvement program in the national forests in the Colorado River Basin. Hanks led a discussion as to the interface between the regional plan and the specific forest plans withi~ the region. It appears that the regional plan, which must be completed in draft form within the next several months, will treat in general terms the question of water yield improvement, while the forest plans may extend for a few more years and will attempt to define in more specific terms those watersheds that would be treated, the extent of the treatment, and related impacts. We discussed how these studies would interface with a feasi- bility study on water yield improvement, and reached a general consensus that these specific studies would be helpful and necessary input to an overall feasibility study, but would not replace or supplant the need for a feasibility study. Milt Robinson discussed the levels of water yield improvement that would be studied in the regional plan. The regional plan will attempt to identify different levels of water yield improvement potentials. One would be the maximum potential, assuming a reason- able harvest of timber. It would cover other lands adjacent to the National Forest lands in the general watershed areaS. Another alter- native would look at a minimum water yield alternative, which would essentially be a do-less-than-at-present alternative. A third alternative would be to develop the optimum which would be between the maximum and minimum. Robinson said that they would also investigate the development of non-commercial timber lands for water yields, and that these lands may also yield other benefits from such vegetation management, such as on wildlife and on recreational. In disc::ussing this aspect, the Forest Service people indicated that they have developed a computer- ized approach to analyze impacts of alternative plans on wildlife values. By identifying the specific area and type of vegetative cover to be managed, they can identify what the impacts would be through the data bank that has been developed. I was asked as to what is the maximum amount of additional water required in the Colorado River Basin and, in reply, referred to a base quantity of 2.5 maf/yras being needed to comply with P.L. 90-537's threshold as to when the river would be augmented C-22