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000184 Program should coordinate with UDWR, Reclamation, and the Service to manage the floodplain to benefit the razorback sucker and not negatively impact waterfowl management. 4. Coordinate floodplain restoration and management with Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. The majority of potential floodplain depression habitat is found in the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge. The Recovery Program should initiate coordination, as necessary, with ONWR to manage key floodplains to benefit the endangered fishes and not negatively impact the goals and objectives of the ONWR Comprehensive Conservation Plan. 5. Continue to manage restored floodplains. The Recovery Program has initiated restoration on eight sites: Bonanza Bridge, Horseshoe Bend, The Stirrup, Baeser Bend, Above Brennan, Johnson Bottom, Leota Ponds, and Old Charlie Wash. These sites should be managed and evaluated for effectiveness as habitat for all life stages of razorback sucker and bonytail. 6. Continue stocking of hatchery razorback sucker and bonytail. Release of hatchery razorback sucker and bonytail is vital to species recovery. These fish augment sparse wild populations and provide the foundation for a self-sustaining population. Stocking also provides fish in the wild to better assess best management strategies for floodplains. 7. Assimilate and synthesize results of fish growth and survival in floodplains. Studies of growth and survival of hatchery razorback sucker and bonytail have been on- going since 1996. More recent and on-going studies address pertinent issues of best size at stocking and survival under varying levels of nonnative fish densities. The sum of information gathered from these studies needs to be assimilated in order to determine the status of knowledge and the need for additional studies. Possibly, there is sufficient information available to apply best strategies of growth and survival learned at one floodplain site to other sites, precluding the need for comprehensive growth and survival studies at each site. 8. Evaluate geomorphic and hydrologic characteristics of entrainment. Conditions that maximize entrainment of larval razorback sucker in floodplains are not well known. A single study should be implemented to assess conditions at key floodplain sites in order to incorporate necessary elements into design of levee breaches and inlet/outlet control gates. 9. Use existing programs to monitor response by razorback sucker and bonytail. 2003 Report Recommendations,