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<br />. <br /> <br />Construction to restore fish passage at the Price-Stubb Diversion Dam is now <br />scheduled for 2005-2006. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Construction is underway to restore fish passage and construct a fish screen at <br />the Grand Valley Project Diversion Dam. Passage is scheduled for completion <br />in FY04, and the fish screen is scheduled for completion in FY05. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Design and installation of a fish screen for the Tusher Wash diversion canal on <br />the Green River can proceed because of the recent decision by the Utah <br />Supreme Court ending a long-standing water-rights dispute. Construction is <br />tentatively scheduled to begin in FY06. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />In fall 2003, the Recovery Program completed the razorback sucker floodplain <br />habitat model to estimate the quantity of habitat needed for recovery, and . <br />drafted subbasin and site-specific floodplain management plans to provide <br />clear objectives, costs, and measures of success. Based on the model and these <br />management plans, the Recovery Program has.shifted from screening <br />additional floodplain sites for potential restoration/acquisition to focusing on <br />sites already acquired or otherwise available for management. <br /> <br />Floodplain habitat has been restored at five Bureau of Land Management sites <br />on the Green River, three sites at Ouray National Wildlife Refuge, two sites on <br />the Colorado River near Grand Junction, and two sites on the Gunnison River. <br />The Recovery Program has acquired 1,600 acres of floodplain/wetland habitat <br />along the Green, Colorado, and Gunnison rivers. <br /> <br />Habitat restoration was completed at the Unaweep Charolais Ranch hear <br />Whitewater, Colorado, in October 2003. The site was designed as a razorback <br />sucker nursery habitat for the lower Gunnison River. Site evaluation will be <br />conducted in FY04. <br /> <br />· The Recovery Program obtained an easement on 455 acres of floodplain <br />habitat on Thunder Ranch near Jensen, Utah, in December 2003. Restoration <br />of a 330-acre wetland on this property will provide important nursery habitat in <br />a key location for young razorback suckers and is expected to greatly . <br />contribute toward recovery of the species. Installation of manifolds and <br />pipelines to divert selenium-laden waters to the river and breaching oflevees is <br />scheduled for FY04. Site evaluation is slated for FY04. <br /> <br />· Information gained from studies on survival of larval razorback sucker and <br />bonytails in the presence of nonnative fishes is being used to determine the <br />amount and type of floodplain habitat needed for recovery. These studies .are <br />continuing in FY04. In addition to survival/recruitment studies, research will <br />focus on entrainment of drifting larvae into floodplain habitats by using semi- <br />buoyant beads and stocked, hatchery-:-producedlarvae. <br /> <br />6 <br />