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01191 Chapter 1.0 Purpose of and Need for Action 7 1A PUBUCINVOLVEMENT 1.4.1 Federal Advisory Committees within the GCDAMP The Proposed Action is based on years of data collection and continuous scientific studies since initiation of ROD operations and accordingly is based on a broader approach than previous actions. It was developed through a sequence of meetings of the advisory committees within the GCDAMP, augmented by discussions with cooperating scientists. Ad hoc experimental flow and sediment committees provided input and developed reports with recommendations to the work groups on the dam release scenarios. These deliberations resulted in recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior to initiate a Proposed Action that would provide the desired conservation and improvements to native fish and sediment. The GCDAMP is composed of a series of working committees chartered under the Federal Advisory Committee Act (F ACA). The advisory committee meetings of the GCDAMP are publicly noticed in the Federal Register and open to public participation. One of those committees is the Adaptive Management Work Group (AMWG). The AMWG has responsibility for providing recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior on operation of Glen Canyon Dam. At their January 19, 2002 meeting, the AMWG reviewed evidence that the Grand Canyon population of endangered humpback chub is severely declining (Coggins and Walters 2001) and reports that sediment and sand continue to be transported out of Glen, Marble, and Grand canyons by the regulated flows of the Colorado River released through Glen Canyon Dam (Rubin et al. 2002). Another of the working groups of the GCDAMP is composed of resource management specialists and is called the Technical Work Group (TWG). The TWG observed that the decline in the humpback chub occurred concomitantly with increases in rainbow and brown trout populations in the Colorado River below Glen Canyon Dam (McKinney et al. 2001, AGFD unpublished data). Adults of both species feed on other fish, including the endangered native species (Maddux et al. 1987; Valdez and Rye11995; Marsh and Douglas 1997; Valdez and Carothers 1998). The AMWG directed the GCMRC, in consultation with the TWG, to design an experiment that tests how dam operations might be modified and other management actions taken to better conserve sediment and help native fish. On March 25, 2002, the GCMRC provided a draft proposal for the requested experimental flows which form the basis for this proposal. Stakeholders discussed the proposal at the April 24, 2002, AMWG meeting. The AMWG directed the GCMRC to proceed with all activities necessary to implement experimental flows in 2002-2003, and to work with the TWG and Science Advisors, an external peer review group who are contracted by the GCMRC to provide advice to the GCMRC and the GCDAMP. The GCMRC then developed a science plan to measure the effects of proposed experiments.