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SAN JUAN . - .' , United States Department of the Interior I TO: OMMITTEE, IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM r Olf\ Be n x AS/:; F I 'L E ,",' FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE Fishery Assistance Office P,O, Box 370 ter, New Mexico 88230 Sue c:J ,~~ . .-) 0::> N MEMORAND FROM~ JIM BROOKS SUBJECT: DRAFT LONG RANGE IMPLEMENTATION PLAN DATE: 14 JUNE 1994 Attached is the draft Long Range Implementation plan for the San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program (RIP). This draft is the fifth produced from an original draft plan in January and revised after Biology committee meetings and reviews during February, April, and June. A considerable amount of time, effort, and debate has gone into the development of this draft document and the Biology Committee is to be commended for their collective efforts. I have been informed that there may be problems associated with the 'native fish community approach' from a few Coordination Committee members and several non-members alike. Keep in mind that the RIP document (Plan) considered the overall fish community in the San Juan River and the inter-relationships between gJl fish species, not just those that are endangered. The endangered Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker evolved in a system that included other species. The rarity of the endangered fish species, combined with their coevolution with the other native fish species requires an integrated recovery approach in order to be successful. While some individuals might not approve of this approach, we should all remember that this recovery program requires accurate and complete '\ biological, chemical, and physical information. The Upper Basin RIP, as an example, originally concentrated on primarily studying tne endangered species. While many field biologists preferred a more integrated approach, the Upper Basin RIP was structured to exclude detailed studies of other native fishes. However, in the last few years efforts have been made to take a more integrated approach, including studying the inter-relationships of all native fis~ have learned a great deal from the successes and Gai1uresof/the Upper Basin RIP and, hence, the reason for the fish communi~y-1evel approach, from the beginning, in the San Juan River ~ Please review the attached draft document and be prepared to discuss at the 30 June 1994 meeting in Albuquerque.