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{ <br />r <br />4.1 HISTORIC SPAWNING AND REARING AREAS <br />r <br />In the early 1970s, Mr. Kidd observed wild spawning razorback suckers and, in rarer instances, <br />spawning Colorado squawfish on several occasions. He identified at least five sites important for <br />their spawning and rearing prior to 1974. The sites identified by Mr. Kidd include: <br />1. The Mesa County DeBeque gravel pit <br />2. The Colorado River Overflow near DeBeque <br />3. The Palisade Labor Camp slough <br />4. The 32 1/4 Road backwater/gravel pit <br />5. The Walter Walker Wildlife Area. <br />He observed razorback suckers in the act of spawning in significant numbers in these areas on <br />several occasions between 1971 and 1980. This was verified for three of these areas in a personal <br />letter of 1980 from Dr. Richard Valdez to Mr. Kidd (Valdez, 1980). He also observed spawning <br />squawfish in these areas, though in fewer numbers. He collected fish belonging to a range of year <br />classes from these areas, indicating that recruitment of the population was present (Kidd, 1977). <br />Mr. Kidd now considers these sites to have been the most important spawning and rearing areas <br />i between the Colorado/Utah state line and Rifle, Colorado. Rifle is near the upper end of the <br />elevation range where he observed the razorback sucker and Colorado squawfish. <br />Mr. Kidd noted that important native fish spawning areas had a number of characteristics in <br />common: <br />1. They were all greater than 5 acres in surface area <br />2. They were all more than 1500 feet in length <br />3. The majority of the pond area ranged from 3 to 5 feet in depth <br />4. They had a source of water other than the Colorado River itself, and did not depend <br />entirely upon the river flow to maintain their water level <br />5. The water temperature was almost always 5 to 10 degrees warmer than the adjacent <br />river water. <br />%XrS%RHPORTSIBAWPP-C.W WE 5