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<br />o <br />,~) Executive Summary <br />C:J <br />I.\~ <br />(...-) <br /> <br />00 This report examines the economic impact of critical habitat designation for four fish species <br />endemic to rivers in the Four Comers region of the American southwest, so-called because <br />Colorado, New Mex..ir;o, Arizona, and Utah all touch one another at one point in this arid <br />land. The report focuses on impacts to an area comprising 10 ccntiguous ccunties in the Four <br />Comers region that would be affected by actiol1ll takCll on behalf of the designated fishes. <br />Impacts to the IO-county region are then projected for a subset of the region wmpriaing four <br />Native American tribes. lmpaas to the tribal subset are apportioned using two different <br />approaches: on the bllllis of tribal population, and on the basis of tribal employment. <br /> <br />This report is a supplement to an earlier study, "Economic Analysis of Critical Habitat <br />Designation in the Colorado River Basin for the Razorba.ck Sucker, Humpback Chub, <br />Colorado SquawflSb, and Bonytail.. The overall results of this study are quite similar to <br />those of the earlier study: At (1 qualitativ~ kv~l, eM total economic impadS represent a smaU <br />fraction of lilt! baseline ~l of <<OMmiC activity lor 1M defined regiOlU. <br /> <br />The Endangered Species Act r~es tIml the mJnomic effect of critical habitat designation <br />be computed separately from the total effect of listing and designation. The method of <br />apportioning the total economic effect on the basis of designation alone is provided in the <br />earlier study, which detenni.ned that the effects of designation of aitical habitat for the listed <br />flllhes was 10 percent of the tatal economic effect. <br /> <br />To determine the total ecollOmiC effect, a baseline projection "without fISh bueline" <br />(WOFBA) was constructed for the regional economy that includes planned development <br />projcctll, and an alternative projection "with fish" (WF) that considers the effects of critical <br />habitat designation on selected sedOr! of the economy throughout the study period. The WF <br />projection includes impacl3 from projected actioDS taken on behalf of the fishes, including <br />water flow maintenance and habitat protection. Direct impaaa in the WP projection occur in <br /> <br />v <br />