BOARD00038 ‎(2)‎

• Board Meeting Date: 9/20/2006
• Description: WSP Section - San Juan River Recovery Implementation Program Document Revisions
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

Water Rights

Nothing in the Cooperative Agreement or this Program will be construed to affect, or to be a
recognition of, the right to use water under any federal or state law or permit, federal contract,
treaty or interstate compact, or to affect the right of any party in any adjudication proceeding to
determine rights to use water or to contract for water.

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Coordination with Other Recovery Efforts

Activities conducted under the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program are
closely coordinated with the ongoing Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish
Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Upper Basin Recovery Program was initiated on
October 1, 1988, with the objective of recovering endangered Colorado River fishes in the Green
River and Upper Colorado River sub-basins above Glen Canyon Dam. The San Juan River
sub-basin was not included in that program. Efforts beneficial to the species are also underway in
the Lower Colorado River Basin. Coordination with these recovery efforts reduces the overlap
and duplication of recovery and research efforts, allows available resources to be focused on
pressing needs in the San Juan River sub-basin, and improves the overall effectiveness of the
programs.

Major Program Recovery Activities

Recovery is based on the reduction or removal of threats and the improvement of the status of a
species during the time it is listed. Management actions and tasks conducted by recovery or
conservation programs for listed species are expected to minimize or remove threats and improve .
the species' status. To delist a species, the Service must determine that the five listing factors
described in section 4(a)(I) of the Endangered Species Act no longer apply (e.g., the habitat is no
longer threatened with destruction or modification, the current abundance and range is adequate,
and the habitat needed to sustain recovered populations is present).

The recovery goals2 include site-specific management actions and tasks, as well as objective,
measurable downlisting and deli sting criteria. Downlisting can be considered when site-specific
management actions and tasks to minimize or remove threats have been identified, developed,
and implemented; delisting can be considered when those management actions and tasks have
been finalized and implemented. The recovery goals also include objective, measurable
demographic criteria that describe numbers of populations and individuals (adults and juveniles)
required for consideration of downlisting and delisting.

Management, research and monitoring actions of the Program must be consistent with
accomplishing the recovery goals for the populations of the two endangered fishes, Colorado
pikeminnow and razorback sucker, in the San Juan River subbasin. The Program operates under

2 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2002. Razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus) Recovery Goals: amendment and
supplement to the Razorback Sucker Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region (6),
Denver, Colorado.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. 2002. Colorado pikeminnow (ptychocheilus lucius) Recovery Goals: amendment
and supplement to the Colorado Squawfish Recovery Plan. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Mountain-Prairie Region
(6), Denver, Colorado.

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