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d. Understand natural reproduction requirements and impediments of <br />native species survival. <br />e. Identify limitations to recruitment of all life stages of native <br />fish. <br />f. Establish benchmark or reference sites to monitor population trends <br />and assess impacts from dam operations. <br />g. Identify and prevent pathogens, parasites, and invading organisms <br />from negatively impacting fisheries and monitor fish health. <br />h. Assess contaminant levels in fish and aquatic food chain organisms; <br />identify sources and protective measures. <br />i. Explore measures to control nonnative fish populations when they <br />negatively influence native fish. <br />j. Promote recreational harvest of sport fish in flowing rivers. <br />B. INFLOWS <br />1. Status of Inflows: Inflows are artificially created habitats formed as a <br />result of the dam backing up waters of Lake Powell. They are the most <br />productive aquatic habitats within the Glen Canyon NRA and support the <br />greatest fish biomass. The inflow estuary is a bountiful nursery area for <br />young fish and for planktivorus adults. Inflowing rivers carry a nutrient <br />load and naturally occurring trace elements with the sediment that are <br />deposited at the inflow. The nutrient rich waters allow development of huge <br />plankton blooms where silt deposition allows sufficient sunlight penetration. <br />Trace elements are incorporated into the food chain via plankton. Food chain <br />organisms containing selenium at levels of 3 ug/g dry weight or more should be <br />viewed as potentially detrimental to aquatic organisms that consume them. <br />Plankton collected by NPS in 1994 at Lake Powell inflows ranged from <0.05 to <br />6.0 ug/g dry weight selenium. Mater clarity is highly variable depending on <br />precipitation, snow melt runoff, and flood events. Inflows act as mixing <br />tones between river and reservoir where native species from river habitats <br />commingle with nonnatives from the reservoir habitats. Larval drift of native <br />fishes spawned upstream in flowing rivers deliver early life stages to the <br />inflows. It is likely that conditions favoring predators occur often enough <br />to negatively impact growing young native fish attempting to survive in the <br />inflow. Native fish presumably need timely access to river habitat to avoid <br />predation from fish assembled in the inflow. <br />Critical habitat has been designated within Glen Canyon NRA for endangered <br />fish and encompasses inflow reaches of Lake Powell, both on the Colorado and <br />San Juan rivers, including the upper San Juan Arm of lake Powell to Neskahi <br />Canyon, and Colorado River to North Wash (USFWS, Federal Register 4/94). The <br />intent of designating these sometimes flat water reaches of Lake Powell as <br />critical habitat was to insure that inflow areas would be included annually at <br />any lake level. At the lake's lowest projected water level the San Juan <br />11 <br />