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• • <br />project in the early 1960's. After closure of the outlet structure, razor- <br />back suckers did not occur in the Green River below the reservoir to the mouth <br />of the Yampa River, although they could still be found from Echo Park to Ouray, <br />Utah in the Green River. In 1970, Holden (1974) collected 10 to 15 razorback <br />suckers from the mouth of the Yampa River. Seethaler and McAda (1974) also <br />collected razorback suckers in Echo Park area. Although authentic razorback <br />sucker collections do not exist for several likely tributaries of the Colorado <br />River (in Colorado) i.e., the White, San Juan and Dolores Rivers, it is docu- <br />mented that they occurred in the Gunnison River upstream to Delta, Colorado, <br />in the Colorado River upstream to DeBeque, Colorado, in the Green River upstream <br />to the Flaming Gorge Reservoir site, in the Yampa River near its mouth, and <br />at one unnamed location in the Animas River. There is doubt that razorback <br />suckers were ever abundant in the Yampa and Green Rivers but general agreement <br />that they have declined to a point of extreme rarity in the Gunnison and <br />Colorado Rivers, as well as the entire upper Colorado River basin. <br />Historical distribution of the bonytail chub was probably similar to <br />that of the razorback sucker, yet somewhat more difficult to identify because <br />the names "roundtail chub" and "bonytail chub" were used synonomously in the <br />early literature. Holden and Stalnaker (1970) partially resolved the taxonomic <br />confusion in the genus Gila by elevating Gila robusta subspecies to separate <br />species, Gila elegans, bonytail chub, and Gila robusta, roundtail chub. <br />Pre-impoundment studies for Flaming Gorge Reservoir by Gaufin et al. <br />(1960) and Banks (1964) revealed bonytail chubs in the main channel of the <br />Green River and in the deep pool near Hideout Canyon. From 1957 to 1966, <br />Vanicek and Kramer (1969) collected 67 adult bonytail chubs from the Green <br />River between Flaming Gorge and the mouth of the Yampa River. Strong year <br />- 5 -