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5 Island Park is primarily attributable to the loss or reduction in size of large backwaters following fluctuating flows (table 1). Stable daily flows for 6 weeks produced substantial increases in backwater area at Jensen and Ouray, and had little or no effect on backwater habitat at Island Park. We realize the limited nature of these data; however, the combination of reduction of backwater habitat at two sites following fluctuating flows and the increase in backwater habitat at two sites following stable flows may indicate that stable flows are more beneficial than fluctuating flows to backwater habitat formation/stability at the sites studied. Tables 4, 5, and 6 present the backwater data at various flows during the 1987 study (Pucherelli et al., 1988) for Island Park, Jensen, and Ouray, respectively. The data from the 1,381-ft3/s flow from these tables are the most comparable between the 1987 and 1989 study because it was formed under relatively stable conditions. At Island parkj there were considerably more backwaters and backwater area at the 1,381-ft /s during 1987 than during any flow event in 1989. The average backwater size was almost always larger during 1989 than 1987 (table 4) at Island Park. During 1987, at Jensen, the 1,381-ft3/s produced more backwaters and backwater area than any flow events of 1989 (table 5). It should be noted that the backwater habitat produced at the 1,381 flow of 1987 was allowed to form at relatively stable flows as were the September 28, 1989 backwaters. During 1987, at Ouray, the 1,381 flow produced about 40-percent less backwater area than the September 28, 1989 flow (table 6). The August 2 and August 16 flows of 1989 produced backwater area similar to the 1987 1,381-ft3/s flow. During both studies, Ouray produced the largest backwaters, and these were substantially larger during the 1989 study. It should be noted that earlier studies have indicated that yearly variation in backwater area can be significant between years (Pucherelli and Clark, 1989). Backwater habitat formation may be affected by the degree of spring runoff and other events including large iceflows during winter months. In addition, it should be noted that the 1989 data were collected with video, while the previous years' studies utilized aerial photography. This could produce differences among different years because 9 by 9 in. aerial photography is superior in resolution to videography. Conclusions and Recommendations Although the 1989 study data are limited in part because of the erroneous flow of October 11, it appears that fluctuating flows are deleterious to backwater habitat formation/stability. Furthermore, it appears that stable flows may be beneficial to backwater habitat formation/stability after backwaters are formed. However, the magnitude of change between the various flows studied during 1989 was not surprisingly large. The authors are not attempting to be ambiguous. The above statements are true; however, they are based on little data. Therefore, we recommend additional study to more adequately determine the magnitude of change fluctuating flows may have on