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rivers appear essential to their survival. 17 The marketplace <br />purchase of the Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights is strategic <br />for two reasons: First, the upstream draft of these <br />predominantly storage rights mimics the natural hydrograph in <br />some important ways --- most of the diversion entitlement occurs <br />during the spring runoff and then drops off dramatically. 18 <br />Second, the construction of the dams would block the migration <br />route for the Colorado Squawfish, and the buy-out of the water <br />rights eliminates that threat. <br />Some environmentalists question whether it is really <br />necessary to purchase and convert to instream use these <br />conditional water rights on the Yampa River since there are <br />substantial questions about whether the big dams are economically <br />or environmentally feasible and whether diligence can be kept up <br />on the water rights. If Two Forks cannot withstand economic and <br />environmental scrutiny, some environmentalists say, Juniper-Cross <br />Mountain hasn't got a chance. The difficulty with this argument <br />is that it leaves the fate of the Yampa River in a kind of <br />stalemate which hardly satisfies the mandate of the Endangered <br />17 Harold M. Tyus and Catherine A. Karp, "Habitat Use and <br />Streamflow Needs of Rare and Endangered Fishes, Yampa River, <br />Colorado", U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Colorado River Fishes <br />Project, Vernal, Utah, July 1989. <br />18 W.W. Wheeler and Associates, "Reconnaissance <br />Investigation: Potential Yield of Water Rights for Juniper-Cross <br />Mountain Water Rights", for The Nature Conservancy, November <br />1987. <br />17