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<br />Based on one year's data, Pucherelli and others (1990) showed that <br />available habitat in the Uinta Basin was maximized at base flows of about 45 <br />m3/ s (1600 ft2/ s). However, Rakowski (1997), showed that the baseflow at <br />which habitat is maximized changes from year to year because of in-channel <br />redistribution of sand bars. Schmidt (1996) also showed that different flows <br />maximize habitat at Ouray than in Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons, which are <br />approximately.325 km. downstream. Thus, there is a need to continue <br />monitoring channel conditions in critical nursery habitat reaches because (1) <br />annual channel changes affect the distribution of available habitat, and (2) <br />annual changes may affect the relative distribution and characteristics of habitat <br />in the two critical nursery habitat reaches. <br />In spring 1996, runoff projections for the upper Green River were very <br />large. The U.s. Bureau of Reclamation and the Utah Division of Wildlife <br />Resources contracted with Utah State University to measure channel response to <br />passage of the flood in areas of critical nursery habitat This contract <br />supplemented on-going research on the geomorphic basis of nursery habitat in <br />the Uinta Basin and in Labyrinth and Stillwater Canyons. The purpose of this <br />report is to summarize our 1996 field activities and provide a preliminary <br />assessment of the significance of our data in relation to that collected since 1993 <br />at these sites. <br /> <br />BACKGROUND <br /> <br />The life history of the Colorado squawfish has been summarized by <br />Stanford, (1994); Tyus, (1991); Tyus and Haines, (1991); and Tyus and Karp, <br />(1991). The Uinta Basin, Labyrinth Canyon, and Stillwater Canyon are the parts <br />of the Green River to which Color8;do squawfish larvae drift in mid-summer. <br />There, rearing of age 0 and juvenile Colorado squawfish occurs in backwaters <br />and low velocity areas. <br /> <br />5 <br />