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6 I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I Section 7 of the ESA requires that federal agencies consult with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) concerning impacts of their proposed actions on T&E species. Federal actions include those actions authorized, funded or carried out by federal agencies. In the late 1970s, the USBR first consulted with USFWS under Section 7 of the ESA on the impacts of its water projects in the Colorado River Basin. Within the Yampa River Basin, the USBR has no facilities that require consultation. The ESA was amended to encourage interagency cooperation in resolving conflicts between water resource development and protection of T&E species. After four years of negotiations, the Secretary of the Interior, the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration, and the governors of Wyoming, Colorado, and Utah signed a cooperative agreement in 1988 establishing the Recovery Implementation Program (RIP) for Endangered Fishes in the Upper Colorado River Basin. The goal of the RIP is to recover the endangered fishes while providing for existing and future water development in the Basin. The RIP provides a means to address these issues in a coordinated manner and serves as a "reasonable and prudent alternative" as defined by the ESA to avoid jeopardizing listed species or adversely modifying their critical habitats. A Section 7 Agreement and a Recovery Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (RIPRAP) were developed in 1993. The Agreement established a framework for conducting consultations under Section 7 of the ESA on the impacts of existing and future water depletions in the Upper Basin. It also established procedures to determine if there has been sufficient progress in the recovery of listed fishes to enable the RIP to continue to serve as a reasonable and prudent alternative. The RIPRAP outlines specific actions to promote recovery of the endangered fishes while allowing water development to continue. RIPRAP actions include such measures as acquiring and managing aquatic habitat and water, re-operating existing reservoirs to provide instream flows for fish, constructing fish passage facilities, controlling nonnative fish, and propagating and stocking T&E fish. It also stipulates by whom and when these actions would be undertaken and how they would be funded. The Yampa River Management Plan is one such element of the RIPRAP under the Green River Action Plan: Yampa and Little Snake Rivers. 2.2.1. Critical Habitat The ESA and USFWS regulations require designation of critical habitat where practicable, usually concurrent with listing the species. In the case of the Yampa River, as well as elsewhere in the Colorado River system, for a variety of reasons critical habitat was not designated concurrent with listing. Critical habitat was designated on March 21, 1994. Critical habitat has been designated on the mainstem of the Yampa River within Moffat County for each one of the four listed T&E species. The area designated as critical habitat for Colorado pikeminnow includes the Yampa River and its 1 OO-year floodplain from State Highway 394 Bridge downstream to the confluence with the Green River (Figure 1). Razorback sucker critical habitat in the Yampa River and its 1 OO-year floodplain extends from the mouth of Cross Mountain Canyon downstream to the Green River confluence. Critical habitat for the humpback chub and bony tail extends throughout the Yampa River in Dinosaur National- Monument. The complete history of the listing of species and designation of critical habitat is available from the USFWS and the Federal Register. Biological support documents as well as economic analyses were included in the designation of critical habitat provided by the USFWS.