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2000 (City of Delta 1996). The population of the City of Delta is approximately 4,000 with another 4,000 persons within a 5-mile radius of the city. The ethnicity of the county residents in 1990 (City of Delta 1996) was primarily white (89.8%), hispanic (9.1%), native American (0.5%), black (0.28%), and Asian (0.23%). The per capita income of Delta County in 1993 was about $16,000. Delta, Colorado was rated in the top one-third of retirement communities in the United States by the Rand McNally's Places Rated Retirement Guide, based on climate, housing, health care, personal safety, economics, and recreation. B. Veqetat i on and Land Use. Much of Delta, Garfi e 1 d, and Mesa Count i es is rural and remains primarily an agricultural area with hay for livestock the . primary crop. The Grand Valley between Clifton and Palisade is dominated by orchards and vineyards. The riparian vegetation. in the floodplain consists primarily of cottonwood (Populus fremontii), willows (Salix sp.), tamarisk (Tamarix oarviflora), and Russian olive (Elaeaqnus anqustifolia). In unaltered floodplains, broadleaf cattail (IYJ:!M'latifolia), some hardstem bulrush (Schoenoolectus acustus), and sedges are the dominant non-woody plants. Low vegetation of adjacent uplands consists of various grasses, forbs, and sagebrush. Numerous ponds are the domi nant feature in altered areas of the broad floodplain areas of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Some are natural floodplain depressions. Gravel mining in the floodplain of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers in construction of Interstate Highway 70 and in commercial and residential construction resulted in depressions that are filled by groundwater and by irrigation return flows. Because of their close proxi mi ty to the ri vers, many fl oodp 1 a in ponds become connected to the rivers during years with high streamflows during the spring runoff (Osmundson 1986).' In addition, some of the ponds have outlets that connect directly to the rivers. In either case, chronic escapement of the nonnative fishes into the rivers occurs regularly. Some of the nonnative fishes do not fare well in the riverine environment. However, the river serves as a conduit for these nonnative fishes to occupy other suitable habitats such as backwaters, embayments, and floodplain ponds. Mitchell (1995) identified 308 ponds (both public and private) representing 878 surface acres along the Colorado and Gunnison rivers (Table 1). Mitchell's inventory on the Colorado River included the reach from the Colorado-Utah state line upstream to Palisade, Colorado. Many additional ponds occur in the floodplain of the Upper Colorado River from Palisade to Rifle. The number remains unknown because an inventory has not been completed to date. Most of the ponds (number = 253; 721 acres) were along the Colorado River and 61 ponds (197 acres) were along the Gunnison River. Most of the ponds were less than 5 acres in surface area (Table 1). For comparative purposes, reservoirs in the area are much larger. For example, Harvey Gap Reservoir contains 196 surface acres. On the Colorado River, 73 percent of the ponds are privately owned while 44 percent of the ponds on the Gunnison River are privately owned (Mitchell 1995). Mitchell (1995) surveyed pond owners via a questionnaire, in part, to determine the number of ponds that contain fish. Landowners along the Colorado River reported that 32% of the ponds contained fish. Landowners along the Gunnison River 9