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Moving Blue Mesa's Marketable Yield: A Myth The Aspinall Unit is a cru- cial element of the Recovery i 1 Program, a multi-agency partner-_, _ , r ,; • w ship created in 1988 to recover four federally endangered fishes in the - Upper Colorado River (the pikeminnow, razorback sucker, humpback chub, and bonytail chub), while still allowing some ' water development to continue. "" - Resulting from a consultation with "?. i L T the FWS, the Recovery Program ' was created to achieve naturally self-sustaining endangered fish populations and to protect habitat on which they depend. Meeting ` these goals will result in removal of This endangered pikeminnow depends on Gunnison the four species from the endan- Basin water to survive gered species list.95 Source: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service The Recovery Program consists of two principal parts. The first part, consist- ing of the Section 7 Consultation, Sufficient Progress, and Historic Projects Agreement (Section 7 Agreement), was developed to clarify how consultations pur- suant to Section 7 of the ESA will be conducted in reference to water depletion impacts in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The second part, the Recovery Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (RIPRAP), developed to support the Section 7 Agreement, identifies specific actions and timeframes necessary to recover the endangered fishes in the Upper Basin. The RIPRAP will measure progress and accomplishments. FWS will determine whether the Recovery Program's progress pro- vides a reasonable and prudent alternative to avoid jeopardizing the existence of the endangered fishes.96 A key piece of the RIPRAP involves flows in the Gunnison River below Aspinall. The Gunnison River is currently occupied by Colorado pikeminnows and is historical habitat for the razorback sucker and bonytail chub. Unrestricted migration for these fish has been limited by the 10-foot high Redlands diversion dam, two miles above the mouth of the Gunnison. Several larval pikeminnows have been collected in the reach of the river just downstream from the Redlands diversion. Recovery activities outlined for the Gunnison River have been focused on operating and evalu- ating a fish ladder constructed at the Redlands diversion dam in 1996, re-operating the Aspinall Unit to improve flow and habitat conditions in the Gunnison, and restor- ing flooded bottomland habitats near Delta, Colorado. The Aspinall Unit may soon release additional water under another element of the Recovery Program, the "Flow Recommendations to Benefit Endangered Fishes in the Colorado and Gunnison Rivers" (also called the "Synthesis Report"). The report, which has been out in draft form since January 2000, calls for moving back toward operating the river in a way that more closely mimics the natural hydrograph, or flow • 24 • The Land and Water Fund of the Rockies