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36 PACE ElVVIRONMENTAL LA W REVIEW [Vol. 11 1993] Aldo Leopold 1 chub are \l could be exl The 19( the endangf ecological cJ ultimately populatiom by the Flar the Colorac fish specie: poisoning i: attitudes tI toward wal over the W ply did not fact, durin, would. not sampling 0 Today are liste( (Ptychoche chub (Gila anus).6 TJ River Systl day are re reports, fo tinct; only to note th~ The lo::. !. in ignorance is the man who says of an animal OJ' pi'Lnt: "What good is it?" If the land mechanism as a whale L" good, then every part of it is good, whether we understand it or not. If the biota, in the course of aeons, has built something we like but do not understand, then who but a fool would discard seemingly useless parts? To keep every cog and wheel is the first precaution of intelli- gent tinkering. I. Introduction - Endangered Fish and Western Water Development In 1962 the United States Bureau of Reclamation began filling Flaming Gorge Reservoir, a 160 square kilometer im- poundment of the Green River along the Utah - Wyoming Border.2 Flaming Gorge was to be stocked with rainbow trout, one of the region's most popular sport fish. In order to insure that the rainbows had a head start on the "rough" or "trash" fish native to the river, officials of the Wyoming and Utah fish and game departments decided to eliminate un- wanted species such as the' razorback sucker and bonytail chub. At 8:00 a.m. on September 4th, fifty-five drip stations began releasing rotenone, a plant~derived poison, along 715 kilometers of the Green River and its tributaries. The three day operation required "more than a hundred people, numer- ous vehicles, airboats~ a helicopter, and a remarkable amount of logistic preparation and support."3 Subsequently, in 1963, the Flaming Gorge Reservoir was stocked with rainbow trout and kokanee salmon. The razorback sucker and bonytail 1. ALDO LEOPOLD, A SAND COUNTY ALMANAC 190 (1970). 2. This account of the Green River poisoning relies on the reports in Paul B. Holden, Ghosts of the Green River: Impacts of Green River Poisoning on Management of Native Fishes, in BATTLE AGAINST EXTINCTION: NATIVE FISH MANAGEMENT IN THE AMERICAN WEST 43 (W. L. Minckley & James E. Deacon, eds., 1991) [hereinafter BATTLE AGAINST EXTINCTION]; and Richard S. Wydoski & John Hamill, Evolution of a Cooperative Recovery Program for Endangered Fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, in BATTLE AGAINST EXTINCTION, supra, at 123. 3. Holden, supra note 2, at 49. 4. Wydo 5. Hold! 6. U.S.' tion of Flare Opinion]. 7. Holdl 8. Holm BATTLE AGAI D.E. Benson Basin, COLO.