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DRAFT An indication of the prior abundance of Colorado squawfish was its use for food and fertilizer (Miller 1961; Minckley 1973) and its widespread favorable reputation-with early settlers as a food and game fish from Colorado downstream into Arizona (Ellis 1914; Dill 1944; Carhart 1950; Rostlund 1952; LaRivers 1962; Sigler and Miller 1963; Minckley 1965, 1973.).- Present Distribution and Abundance Natural populations of the Colorado squawfish are restricted to the Upper Colorado River Basin (Upper Basin) in Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico. The species is most abundant in the Green River below the confluence with the Yampa River; the Yampa River below Craig, Colorado; the White River from Taylor Draw Dam near Rangely, Colorado, downstream to the confluence with the Green River; and mainstem Colorado River from Palisade, Colorado, downstream to Lake Powell (Holden and Wick 1982; Miller et al. 1982b; Tyus et al. 1982b, 1987; Wick et al. 1985, 1986; Archer et al. 1985). Catches of young, juvenile, and adult Colorado squawfish are reported to be an order of magnitude higher in the Green River basin of Colorado and. Utah than elsewhere (Tyus et al. 1986, Tyus 1990). Recent investigations have found many young, juveniles, and adults in the Green River from the mouth of the Yampa River to its confluence with the Colorado {Holden 1973; Holden and Stalnaker 1975a, 1975b; Tyus et al. 1982a, 1982b, 1987; Archer et al. 1985). Adults have been captured in the lower 199 km (124 miles) of the Yampa River and in Lodore Canyon of the Green River (Tyus et al. 1982a; Miller et al. 1982b), and larvae were identified from the lower 30 km (19 miles) of the Yampa River in Dinosaur National Monument (Wick et al. 1981, 1985, 1986; Haynes et al. 1984; Tyus et al. 1987.). Two adult Colorado squawfish implanted with radio transmitters ascended the Little Snake River in 1988, (Wick and Hawkins 1989). Investigation of the Green and Little Snake rivers in Wyoming in 1986 failed to produce any Colorado: squawfish, (Johnson and Oberholtzer 1987); however, an adult Colorado squawfish was found in the Little Snake: River in Wyoming in 1990 (Robert Pistono, Wyoming Game and Fish, pers. comm.): Colorado squawfish have been found in the lower 243 km (151 miles) of the White River in Utah and Colorado (Prewitt et al. 1918; Wick et al. 1979, 1981; Carlson et al. 1979; Lanigan and Berry 1981; Miller .et al. 1982a; Martinez 1986a).: In the Duchesne River, a fisherman caught a Colorado squawfish at the mouth of the Uinta River in 1975 (Seethaler 1978) and a specimen implanted with a radio transmitter ascended the Duchesne River in 1980 (Tyus et al. 1982b). Adult and young Colorado squawfish still inhabit Lake Powell (Minckley 1913; Wick et al. 1981; Valdez et al. 1982b; Miller et al. 1984). Adult squawfish were captured in the riverine portion of the reservoir in 1980 (Persons and Bulkley 1982). Valdez and Williams (1985, 1986) also reported both adult and juvenile Colorado squawfish in Cataract Canyon at the inlet of Lake Powell, indicating that the species is reproducing in or above that reach.