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PREFACE J . In 1975 the Instream Flow situation in the water administration arena was frustrating and confusing at best, While the water planning community was beginning to recognize that instream flow needs were a legitimate part of the water administration picture, investigation of instream flow requirements was a part-time job practiced by an uncoordinated group of biologists using a variety of methods. Instream flow assessments had traditionally arrived at a single stream flow value - a IIminimum flow. II Such recommendations were usually determined solely from analysis of hydrologic records, and because of inherent threshold connotations provided only limited opportunity for negotiation and compromise. The critical need for a coordinated, substantive effort to provide a focus for the multitude of divergent efforts ongoing in instream flow acti- vities was documented in a 1975 statement by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Ecological Services, 1n a document entitled "Toward a National Program of Substantive Instream Flow Studies and a Legal Strategy for Implementing the Recommendations of such Studies." A reVlew of the literature (Stalnaker and Arnette 1976) indicated that neither adequate quantitative techniques nor sufficient data were readily available to solve the types of complex problems being encountered by the U,S. Fish and Wildlife Service field offices and the various state fishery management agencies. Thus, in July 1976 the Cooperative Instream Flow Service Group (IFG) was .. established as a multi-agency, interdisciplinary entity to serve as a center of activity and provide direction for instream flow assessments. The objectives of the Group were threefold: 1) identification of instream requlre- , ments through accelerated application of improved methodologies; 2) development