8020

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 8020
• Author: Horak, G. C.
• Title: Proceedings of the Symposium on Mitigating Developmental Impacts on Fish and Wildlife.
• USFW Year: 1979.
• USFW - Doc Type: March 1979.
• Copyright Material: NO

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agency because the dam was being operated under a certain release schedule for
fiood control and irrigation. Therefore, the operating agency had no incentive
to alter these operations for fish because water storage in the reservoir was
fully allocated to other project purposes.
Perhaps the most neglected aspect of the recommendation process and FWCA's
intent has been the implementation of accepted fish and wildlife recommendations.
The efforts of fish and wildlife agencies and legislative bodies as well as
FWCA has been toward ensuring that fish and wildlife measures are formulated on
the basis of reliable and acceptable methodologies and offered to the sponsoring
agency. As yet, however, efforts have not been directed toward ensuring that
fish and wildlife measures, once agreed-to through interagency bargaining, are
actually maintained and effective.
The data indicate that, for the most part fish and wildlife agencies and
sponsoring agencies cooperate within the boundaries of performance outlined
in FWCA i.e., fish and wildlife measures are planned and reviewed rather than
ignored. If the objective is to carry out the mitigation and improvement of
the resource by incorporating fish and wildlife plans into project design and
implementing them, then planning and the review of recommendations is not
enough. Research has shown that third parties (e.g. state fish and game agen-
cies, concerned sponsoring agency and FWS staff, environmental interest groups,
development groups, and Congress) have been an important variable affecting
the ultimate implementation or non-implementation of fish and wildlife measures.
For example, a Fish and Wildlife Service employee while conducting a follow-up
study of" the Baker Project persuaded an irrigation district manager to implement
a flow recommendation. In the cases of Garrison Diversion Unit and Teton Basin
Project, environmental interest groups exerted enough political pressure to
temporarily halt project construction which resulted in court action. Sub-
sequent to that action, mitigatory expenditures and obligations were increased

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