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INTRODUCTION <br />The Yampa River is a major northwestern Colorado <br />waterway (average annual discharge = 1.2 million acre <br />feet) which arises near Oak Creek, Colorado, and flows <br />westward 175 km before its confluence with the Green <br />River in Dinosaur National Monument. The White River is <br />a smaller waterway (average annual discharge = 420,000 <br />acre feet) with headwaters on the White River Plateau. <br />It flows west for approximately 140 km and joins the <br />Green River near Duchesne, Utah. Both rivers are major <br />tributaries of the Colorado River and are presently <br />unimpounded (Figures 1 and 2). <br />Demand for the waters of both rivers has risen sharply <br />in recent years and diversion of water has altered the flow- <br />duration curve and reduced aquatic habitat. Consumptive <br />use of Yampa River water is expected to triple between 1976 <br />ar:d 1985 (Steele 1975) and two major impoundments, at <br />Juniper Springs and Cross Mountain Canyons, are proposed <br />for construction in the near future. <br />The aquatic communities of both rivers contain popula- <br />tions of the endemic Colorado River Basin fish fauna and <br />introduced fish species. The fate of the endemic fish <br />fauna of the Colorado River system is extensively documented <br />(Behnke 1973, Holden and Stalnaker 1970, 1973, 1975, <br />Miller 1961, 1972, Minckley and Deacon 1968, <br />:s