8231

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8231
• Author: Maddux, H. R.
• Title: Draft Environmental Assessment For Procedures For Stocking Of Nonnative Fish Species In The Upper Colorado River Basin.
• USFW Year: 1996.
• USFW - Doc Type: Grand Junction, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

development. Stocking procedures that do not adequately address the
nonnative fish issues will not serve as a reasonable and prudent
alternative.
2. Aquaculture Industry: Most fish stocked into private ponds come from
privately owned aquaculture facilities. Aquaculture facilities produce
fish for stocking as well as for consumption. Some facilities serve as
a middle man, acquiring fish from other locations for stocking into
private ponds. Species commonly sold by these facilities include
rainbow trout, channel catfish, largemouth bass, bluegill, mosquitofish,
and triploid grass carp. Ponds stocked with warmwater fish usually do
not require annual stockings: some rainbow trout waters require stocking
each year. Markets for triploid grass carp are increasing throughout
the West, due to its' ability to control vegetation. Warmwater fish
stocking in the last five years occurred in four percent of the ponds
along the Colorado River representing 20 percent of the surface acres.
3. Private Ponds: Mitchell (1995) identified 308 ponds representing 878
surface acres along the Gunnison and Colorado rivers: a few ponds also
exist along the White and Yampa rivers. For comparative purposes.
Harvey Gap Reservoir is 196 surface acres and Taylor Draw Reservoir on
the White River is 615 surface acres. On the Colorado River. 73 percent
of the ponds are privately owned and 44 percent of the ponds on the
Gunnison River are privately owned (Mitchell 1995). Nine percent of
warmwater anglers surveyed in western Colorado reported that they fished
in private ponds (Colorado Division of Wildlife 1996). Only one pond
owner that reported along the Gunnison River indicated that his pond was
used for fishing, and that was for rainbow trout. For ponds on the
Colorado River, fishing was reported in ponds representing about 105
surface acres. Twenty-three surface acres contained only largemouth
bass, bluegill, and/or black crappie. Many of the others contained
channel catfish, in addition to largemouth bass, bluegill, and/or black
crappie. At least one pond reported that it contained grass carp. The
survey did not include the Yampa or White rivers.
Mapping the floodplain revealed little difference (only a few inches in
elevation) between the 50- and 100-year floodplains (Colorado Water
Conservation Board 1995: Appendix D). The boundaries of these two
floodplains generally overlap. Of the ponds examined from 1988 maps of
the Colorado River from Palisade to Loma, Colorado. 85 of 101 ponds were
located below the 10-year floodplain. The other 16 ponds were between
the 10- and 100-year floodplain boundaries. Maps with sufficient detail
were not available to determine the 10-year floodplain boundaries on
other rivers. It is likely that a high percentage of floodplain ponds
on these other rivers are also within the 10-year floodplain.
Less than five ponds have been permitted for warmwater fishes in the
Green River Basin in Utah. Most pond permits issued in Utah have been
for salmonids (trout). It is unknown whether any of the ponds
containing warmwater fish are in the floodplain. The last pond
permitted in Utah for warmwater fish followed the draft stocking
procedures that were being considered at that time. They therefore
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