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expensive and their value to recovery is unknown. The recovery value of fish <br />passageways needs to be evaluated as part of planned studies. <br />When passageways may be important to recovery <br />There may be a variety of situations in which the provision of passage may <br />benefit the recovery of Colorado squawfish. An obvious one is when the existing <br />barrier prevents access of adult fish to the only suitable spawning habitat, and thus <br />spawning does not occur. This situation would be similar to that for the Pacific <br />salmons, for example, species whose populations have declined dramatically, in large <br />part because Columbia River dams prevent the adult fish from reaching headwater <br />spawning streams. If access to a limited amount of habitat occurs, spawning may <br />take place but the resulting young are too few to allow adequate recruitment to the <br />adult stock. As a result, the adult stock would be small and would be considered to <br />be "spawning habitat" limited. In addition, limitation of spawning habitat availability <br />might force genetically distinct stocks to spawn in a common habitat, thus leading to <br />interbreeding and possible loss of genetic uniqueness between stocks. <br />A second situation in which the provision of fish passage might benefit recovery is <br />when the availability of nonspawning habitat (e.g., wintering-feeding habitat) for adult <br />fish is limiting the size of the adult population. In this case, movement barriers might <br />prevent access to suitable adult habitat and the adult population could be described <br />as being "adult habitat" limited. <br />In both of these examples, the effect of the movement barrier is to further limit the <br />range of the species. The negative effect of the movement barrier on the population <br />6