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001509 Fish and Wildlife Resources No Federally-listed threatened or endangered mammals or plants are known to occur in the area affected by the project. Threatened or endangered species of birds that may occur include the bald eagle, American peregrine falcon, and the southwestern willow flycatcher. The bald eagle is a regular winter visitor to the Colorado River corridor that occasionally perches and roosts in large cottonwoods along the river. One mature cottonwood tree is at the abandoned canal head works, but bald eagle use of the tree has not been observed. The American peregrine falcon has several breeding territories in the vicinity of the Grand Valley, but its use of the project area would be rare. The migratory southwestern willow flycatcher is known to use patches of willow, tamarisk and small cottonwood trees in Mesa County from May 1 to August 15. The riparian wetland fringe along the river consists of sandbar willow and tamarisk. The single story patches lack diversity and are typically too small to be considered suitable habitat for breeding and nesting use. Reclamation concludes that the project would not adversely affect the bald eagle, American peregrine falcon or southwestern willow flycatcher. Contracts would require work to stop if activities are thought to be affecting any listed species. Effects on Endangered Colorado River Fishes Issue: Providing passage at the dam is needed to allow endangered fish access to upstream habitat (see page 3). Passage actions should complement other Recovery Program efforts such as stocking endangered fish, controlling competition or predation by nonnative fish, and restoring habitat. Existing Conditions: The Price-Stubb Damexcludes access by migratory fish to suitable habitat upstream. Two of the four endangered Colorado River fish species, the humpback chub and bonytail, do not occur in the reach of the Colorado River involved in this fish passage project. However, the Recovery Program plans to stock bonytail between Palisade and Lorna in the next 5 years. The affected reach is within designated critical habitat of the endangered Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker. These fish are known to occupy habitat downstream from the dam, but the Colorado pikeminnow is absent in the 50 miles of its historic range from the Price-Stubb Dam upstream to Rifle, and the razorback suckers are extremely rare. A dramatic decline in razorback suckers occurred between 1974 and 1991 in the Colorado River. In 1991 and 1992,28 adult razorback suckers were collected from isolated ponds adjacent to the Colorado River near DeBeque. No young razorback suckers have been collected in recent surveys of the Colorado River. Because little or no recruitment has been documented throughout the basin, propagation and stocking of razorback suckers is considered the highest priority among the four endangered fishes, The Recovery Program has approved a 5-year plan to stock a substantial number (130,000) of 6- tol2-inch razorback suckers both upstream and downstream from the Price-Stubb Dam. About 1,200 Colorado pikeminnow are scheduled for stocking in the Colorado River from DeBeque Canyon to Rifle, In addition to stocking Colorado pikeminnow, 37