9688

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9688
• Author: Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program.
• Title: Nonnative Fish Control Workshop Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations.
• USFW Year: 2002.
• USFW - Doc Type: Lakewood, CO.
• Copyright Material: NO

2.1 Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program
The final guiding document of the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fishes in
the Upper Colorado River Basin (Recovery Implementation Program) was completed on
September 29, 1987. The Recovery Implementation Program was initiated under a Cooperative
Agreement signed by the Secretary of the Interior in 1988, as a coordinated effort of State and
Federal agencies, water users, energy distributors, and environmental groups to recover the four
endangered fishes in the upper basin (U.S. Department of the Interior 1987; Wydoski and Hamill
1991; Evans 1993). The Recovery Implementation Program is now known as the Upper.
Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (UCRRP). The UCRRP consists of seven
program elements, including instream flow protection; habitat restoration; reduction of nonnative
fish and sportfish impacts; propagation and genetics management; research, monitoring, and data
management; information and education; and program management. Reduction of nonnative fish
and sportfish impacts is referred to in the UCRRP's RIPRAP as "Reduce Negative Impacts of
Nonnative Fishes and Sportfish Management Activities (Nonnative and Sport Fish
Management)".
Tasks that describe projects and activities under each program element are identified in the
RIPRAP. Many of the identified tasks are recommendations of the Nonnative Fish Control
Strategy (Tyus and Saunders-1996) developed as a result of a workshop held in September 1996.
The RIPRAP provides annual guidance on all recovery activities and identifies the nonnative fish
control and removal programs and the responsible entity. Twenty-five tasks are currently
identified in the RIPRAP under the recovery program element Nonnative and Sport Fish
Management. Many of these tasks involve direct removal or translocation of nonnative fishes
from the rivers of the upper basin. However, since nonnative fish removal was developed and
implemented in the upper basin, there has not been an effective, precise, and reliable way
developed to measure success. The amount of effort expended necessary to detect a response has
also not been determined.
The current focus of the UCRRP with respect to Nonnative and Sport Fish Management is to:
• confine nonnative stockings to areas where an absence of conflicts with
endangered fishes can be demonstrated; this is addressed through development of
stocking procedures;
• determine impacts from competition/predation, and if necessary and feasible,
remove problematic species from essential areas;
• review sport-fishing practices and regulations, and implement remedial changes,
as needed;
• implement an information and education program on nonnative fish control; and
• implement an enforcement program to minimize incidental take of endangered
fishes.
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