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variables that might now be limiting the populations of those fishes or might become <br />important limiting factors as we endeavor to create conditions important to the recovery <br />of the Colorado squawfish. In this report section, we briefly review those environmental <br />variables, discuss their importance to the recovery of Colorado squawfish, and establish <br />flow-habitat management objectives for each of the limiting factors that have been <br />identified in the 15-mile reach. Those flow-habitat management objectives are based on <br />the habitat requirements that we believe are important to the recovery of Colorado <br />squawfish in the upper Colorado River, as directed by the Recovery Implementation <br />Program. <br />Physical habitat <br />The 15-mile reach is occupied habitat for Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker, <br />species that cannot be recovered and delisted if such habitats are not maintained and <br />improved. In their earlier report, Osmundson and Kaeding presented data that <br />indicated Colorado squawfish extensively use deep runs and pools in the 15-mile reach <br />during July, August and September (see, for example, Figure 22, Appendix A). <br />Although the present availability of such habitat may not now limit the size of the adult <br />Colorado squawfiish population of the 15-mile reach, such availability nonetheless might <br />prevent an increase in the population toward the recovery goals that need to be <br />established. Because the numerical recovery objectives for the self-sustaining adult <br />Colorado squawfish populations have yet to be established and the relation between the <br />size of such populations and habitat quantity has yet to be determined, it is prudent to <br />seek a near-maximum quantity of habitat for the adult fish and thereby eliminate the <br />7