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Purpose PART 1: INTRODUCTION Page 7 This Conservation and Management Plan (Plan) describes a strategy for identifying and implementing conservation measures for roundtail chub (Gila robusta), bluehead sucker (Catostomus discobolus), and flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus latipinnis) (henceforth referred to as the three species) and their habitats in Utah. Wildlife officials representing the states of ~ Arizona, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming signed the Range-wide Conservation Agreement (Agreement) for the Three Species in April of 2004. Federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service, signed the Agreement in 2005. The Agreement was meant to be a generalized schematic of conservation goals and objectives designed to expedite implementation of conservation measures for the species ~ throughout their ranges. Subsequent to the development of the Agreement, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (Division) developed aRange-wide Conservation Strategy (Strategy) for the three species. The Strategy provides general guidance to each of the cooperators as they develop their state plans, as required by the Agreement. Range-wide objectives called for in the Agreement and reiterated in the Strategy are included in Appendix A. ~ Justification and Need Potential for listing The three species are predominantly found in mainstem rivers and their major tributaries in the Colorado River Basin, though bluehead sucker are also found in parts of the Bonneville and Snake basins. Available data indicate that all three species have suffered significant reductions in distribution (ca. 50-55%) due to river regulation, water development, effects of invasive fish species (including hybridization with exotic fish), and regulatory neglect (Bezzerides and Bestgen 2002). All three species are now considered sensitive species in Utah (State of Utah Rule R657-48'), are similarly classified or proposed for similar classification in neighboring states, and are included in the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) sensitive species list in Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) Region 2 (representing Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) reports that the three species may be petitioned for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act (Act) in the foreseeable .future and that they have already received a petition for listing the lower basing roundtail chub as a ~ distinct population segment3. The Service responded with a "warranted, but precluded" finding that would have put the lower basin roundtail chub on the candidate4 list; however, they were asked to provide further support for the finding by the national Service office. In response, the Service, Region 2, issued a 90-day finding and is currently expected to make a ruling soon on whether or not to list the lower basin roundtail chub. Thus, the federal status on the roundtail ' See http://www.rules.utah.gov/publicat/code/r657/r657-048.htm. State of Utah Rule R657-48. z The upper and lower Colorado River Basins are divided at Lee's Ferry, Arizona, with everything upstream of Lee's Ferry in the upper basin and everything downstream of Lee's Ferry as the upper basin. a A distinct population segment is a designation below the species taxonomic level that refers to a portion of the species that is discrete with respect to the rest of the populations in the species and that is biologically or ecologically significant. a Candidate species are plants and animals for which the Service has sufficient information on their biological status and threats to propose them as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but for which development of a listing regulation is precluded by other higher priority listing activities.