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Ms. Carol DeAngelis February 23, 2004 Page 3 of4 . . Attachment Colorado Water Conservation Board Comments Concerning the January 26, 2004 Draft Biological Opinion For Navajo Dam Operations In Relationship to the San Juan Recovery Implementation Program General These comments address the proposed requirements by U,S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) that Reclamation expand the scope of the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (SJRIP) to support recovery of the southwestern willow flycatcher. January 26, 2004 Draft Biological Opinion On page 72 ofthe draft opinion, the Service states: "3) Reclamation in cooperation with the Service, shall expand the mission of the SJRIP to include recovery of the flycatcher. The flycatcher was not federally listed as an endangered species until 1994, and not known to breed along the San Juan River until 1997. The SJRIP was initiated in 1991. 4) Reclamation, in coordination with the SJRIP, shall evaluate the action area for potential flycatcher restoration and enhance the projects, and implement projects in consultation with the Service." Under "Terms and Conditions" that follow the Service states: "3.1 Expand the SJRIP to include flycatchers." "3.2 Reclamation working with the SJRIP, shall lead development of the San Juan regional southwestern willow flycatcher management plan and interagency conservation agreement in consultation with the Service, . , ." The Service goes on to make these tenns and conditions "nondiscretionary," The San Juan Recovery Implementation Program In 1992, the Secretary of the Interior, the governors of Colorado and New Mexico, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, the Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, the Jicarilla Apache Nation signed a Cooperative Agreement establishing the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program. (The Navajo Nation joined the Program later.) The purpose of this Program is stated in the Cooperative Agreement as follows: "1. PURPOSE: On October 24,1991, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was executed by the Department, the States of Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico, the Ute Mountain Indian Tribe, the Southern Ute Indian Tribe, and the Jicarilla Apache Indian Tribe, to set forth certain agreements and to establish the foundation for a long-tenn program to recover the endangered fish species in the San Juan River Basin. This Cooperative Agreement adopts the attached San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program (Implementation Program) and therefore supercedes the MOU. The Signatories to this Cooperative Agreement agree to participate in and Rood Protection. Water Project Planning and Finance. Stream and lake Protection Water Supply Protection. Conservation Planning OOH:;r;