8031

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8031
• Author: U.S. Department of the Interior.
• Title: Fish and Wildlife Service Final Biological and Conference Opinion on Lower Colorado River Operations and Maintenance - Lake Mead to Southerly International Boundary.
• USFW Year: 1997.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

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BIOLOGICAL OPIMON

Proposed Action

"utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposes of this Act by carrying out programs
for the conservation of endangered species and threatened species listed pursuant to sect ion
4 of this Act".

In addition to aiding the recovery of listed species, Reclamation's endangered species program also
has, as an objective, the conservation of non-listed species of concern to prevent their future
listing. Specific programs are described below.

a. Endangered bonytail chub and razorback sucker conservation

Reclamation has an active program for the conservation and recovery of endangered razorback
suckers and bony tail chub. The specific immediate needs, as determined by Reclamation working
in concert with the Biological Subcommittee of the LCR MSCP and other fisheries biologists, for
razorback sucker and bony tail are summarized as follows:

· Razorback Sucker (by year 2000)
add 50,000 adults to Lake Mohave
add 25,000 adults to Lake Havasu

· Bony tail Chub (by year 2005)
add 25,000 adults to Lake Mohave
add 25,000 adults to Lake Havasu

As pan of this effort, the ad hoc Native Fish Work Group (NFWG) on Lake Mohave was formed
in 1989 to replace the aging population of adult razorback suckers resident to Lake Mohave.
Replacing the sunset population of razorback suckers with immature fish spawned by
Lake Mohave's wild population will help maintain the population's genetic diversi ty and viability.
The founding members of the NFWG include Reclamation, the Service, Nevada Division of
Wildlife (NDOW), Arizona Game and Fish Department, National Park Service, and Arizona State
University. (Further discussion of how these efforts relate to other projects are found in the
Environmental Baseline and Status of the Species sections, below, for the two fish.)

In terms of accomplishing the goals, as specified above for each fish and lake, Reclamation has
committed to fund and provide other necessary resources to accomplish at least half of such goals.
Specific methods to effect such numbers are described below:

i. Willow Beach National Fish Hatchery (WBNFH)

Since 1994, Reclamation has been working with the Service at WBNFH to retrofit portions of this
cold water facility in order to rear native warm-water fishes. In 1994, Reclamation engineers
designed and installed heating systems for the hatch house for initial rearing of eggs and larvae.

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