Laserfiche WebLink
the long-term monitoring, hypothesis-testing and hypothesis-refinement effort will require <br />many years. Moreover, preliminary results of this long-term effort may necessitate <br />refinement of flow recommendations, recovery goals and hypotheses to be tested. The <br />outcome of the long-term effort, however, should be a good understanding of the <br />interactions of the fish population and the important environmental variables that affect <br />it, including river discharge. <br />Assessment of flow recommendations, the long-term process <br />Flow recommendations need to be assessed in terms of the actual flows that are <br />provided after implementation of the recommendation, the resulting availability (in <br />terms of quantity and quality) of the habitat, and the subsequent response of the fish <br />population to the anticipated habitat changes. Thus monitoring of flows, habitats and <br />fishes is essential to this assessment. Moreover, as additional data are collected and <br />further understanding of important factors affecting the fish population is gained, it may <br />be necessary to adjust flow recommendations or recovery objectives. Of course, the <br />most important concern in any assessment is the response of the fish population to <br />implementation of the flow recommendation. Such responses will determine whether <br />the population is increasing toward the recovery goals necessary for delisting of the <br />species. <br />Assessment of the flow recommendation thus becomes a matter of determining <br />whether the predicted responses occur in both the habitat and the population of the <br />endangered species. Responses of the fish population to implementation of the <br />recommended flows may include changes in fish growth, movement, spawning time, <br />5