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i i Unfortunately, it was not distributed to all the conservation agencies until recently. The emotion ran high. The most volatile reaction came from people in Colorado. A coordinating committee has been established and has been given a strong specific charge. Members are imy regional director, the two regional directors from the Bureau of Reclamation, Cliff Barrett and Billie Martin out of Denver, the D&R head from Utah; the D&R head from Colorado, and Warren White from the Wyoming Governor's office. The charge is something like - gentlemen, get your agencies to- gether and work out something on the Colorado fishes versus water de- velopment problems. It is strong. We feel we have done the job in getting this elevated in terms of what we have, and think it will be a way to get it resolved. It is a very preliminary plan, such that what finally comes out of the whole operation may be somewhat different. The coordinating com- mittee has set up two sub-committees, one for hydrology and one for biology. The two sub-committees will meet on April 6. Everything is on a tight time frame. They are hoping to have a draft plan, I am not sure what they will call it by late next fall. The preliminary plan is more or less on hold until all the agencies get a chance to look at a new approach, or decide what we have is pretty good and add to it. I will let Jim Johnson report on the Lower Basin and then we will answer questions. Lower Basin Johnson - I am one of several people here representing Mike Spear in Albuquerque. I brought a couple of informational circulars--one shows some of the fish we are talking about. Of the eight fish shown in the. leaflet, seven are Colorado endemics, but most of the discussion, from my understanding is to be around the big-water fishes. The squawfish, the humpback chub, bonytail chub, and the razorback sucker. At least three of the four are shown. The other leaflet deals with Dexter Na- tional Fish Hatchery. In the Lower Basin, Region 2, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, we have approached recovery of the Colorado River big-water fishes differently from the Upper Basin, Region 6. Region 6 still has habitat for the species in most cases. The Lower Basin tends to have lost the habitat. In only one case do we have good habitat left, and that is for the humpback chub in the Grand Canyon at the mouth of the Little Colorado. It is protected by the Park Service and we have gone in and done what we thought the recovery plans told us to do, then drawn back and left the population to go as it should. 27 d