7612 ‎(2)‎

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7612
• Author: Roberts, B. and M. Moretti.
• Title: Final Fisheries Survey of the San Juan River, Utah 1988.
• USFW Year: 1988.
• USFW - Doc Type: Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Copyright Material: NO

INTRODUCTION

,The Endangered Species Act requires an investigation of the impacts of water
resource development on endangered fishes. Consultation between U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service and Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) on further water development
activities in the San Juan River Basin (Animas and laPlata Rivers) indicated a
survey of the river was needed to assess the potential for recovery of endangered
fishes. A cooperative agreement was established between BOR and the States of
New Mexico and Utah to study the San Juan River in 1987. The study was extended
through 1988 to assure that all habitats in the San Juan River were thoroughly
surveyed. The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish surveyed the river from
Farmington, New Mexico to Four Corners, approximately 60 river miles (RMI). The
Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) surveyed the rjver from Four-Corners
to Piute Farms, approximately 136 RMI. In 1988, UDWR took over the young-of-
the-year Colorado squawfish and adult razorback sucker sampling from the BOR in
the lower 16 miles of river (Lake Powell transition zone).

The objectives of the Utah's 1988 San Juan River study were to:

Document distribution of Colorado squawfish in the river.

1)
2)
3) Monitor razorback sucker population at Piute Farms on Lake Powell.
4)

Document occurrence of razorback sucker and/or adult chubs in the river.

Characterize the fish community in the river and backwaters during a low
water yea~.

5) Recommend further recovery or management activities for rare Colorado River
fishes in the San Juan River.

-5ections of the introduction, study area, methods and results have been
pulled directly out of the UDWR's 1987 San Juan River report by Meyer and Moretti
(1988).

STUDY AREA

The San Juan River is a major tributary of the Colorado River in the Upper
Colorado River Basin (Figure 1). The San Juan River drainage basin encompasses
99,200 km2 (Carlson and Carlson 1982); arising in the San Juan Mountains of
southwestern Colorado. It flows southwesterly in New Mexico, turns northwest
and enters Utah after cutting across the extreme southwest corner of Colorado.
From the Utah-Colorado state line, the river flows mostly westerly to empty into
lake Powell. Encompassed in this study were the 136 miles of river from the U.S.
Highway 160 bridge in Montezuma County, Colorado to Piute Farms Marina on lake
Powell (Figures 2 and 3). From the state line to Chinle Creek (approximately
53 mi), the channel is relatively broad and braided. Below Chinle Creek, the
river has cut canyons into the Monument Upwarp and formed entrenched meanders.

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