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numerous water surface elevations throughout the runoff season to develop stage/discharge <br />relationships and assess the floodability of each bottomland. <br />• Identify existing bankfull discharge and flooding discharges for all the bottomland sites. <br />• Perform topographic surveys in order to create mapping, estimate the area of potential flooded <br />bottomland inundation, and identify levee removal strategies to enhance floodability. <br />• Develop area of inundation as a function of flow relationships for each site. <br />• Relate the historical flow magnitudes, frequency and duration to the bankfull discharge and <br />flooded bottomland inundation. <br />• Design restoration alternatives to enhance the floodability of the bottomlands to mimic historic <br />frequencies and durations while avoiding the overwintering of non-native fishes. <br />Site Descriptions <br />The Green River is the major tributary of the Colorado River with a basin draining approximately <br />45,700 square miles of western Colorado, southwestern Wyoming and eastern Utah. Flows in the Green <br />River have been regulated by Flaming Gorge Reservoir since October, 1962. The major tributaries to the <br />Green River upstream of the ten BLM and ONWR Sites include the Yampa and Little Snake Rivers (Figure <br />1). Flows in the Green River are primarily snowmelt from the western slope of the Rocky Mountains and <br />annually peak in late May or early June. The base flow period extends from about September to March. The <br />hydrology of the Green River has been altered by water resource development throughou# the basin. <br />Changes which have occurred in the magnitude and duration of discharge are discussed in the hydrology <br />section of this report. <br />Ten Green River flooded bottomland sites were selected for floodability assessment in 1996. One <br />of the main reasons these sites were chosen was because of land ownership. The first five sites were all <br />located on Bureau of Land Management Land (Figure 2), therefore, access was not a problem, and <br />cooperation with the agency facilitated the data collection effort and will permit restoration activities. Similarly, <br />the next five sites, located on the Ouray National Wildlife Refuge (Figure 3), were also easily accessible. <br />Cooperation with the refuge staff enhanced the data collection efforts. In addition to the ease of access, all <br />ten sites provided a wide array of bottomland characteristics, which will allow different levee removal <br />strategies and provide research opportunities to study how native and non-native fish utilize different types <br />of bottomlands and hydraulic connections. The ten bottomland sites are also in proximity of the razorback <br />spawning habitat near the Jensen gage. Under existing conditions, all ten sites act as depressions which are <br />inundated by high runoff flows and retain water after peak flows recede. Currently, most of these sites <br />completely dry after runoff season or drop to less than a foot of depth. The one exception is the Above <br />Brennan bottomland. <br />The bottomland sites were originally defined as depression or terrace sites by the recovery program. <br />By the Recovery Program definition, a depression site retains water in the bottomland after flood flows recede. <br />All ten sites studied act as depressions under existing conditions. A terrace, by the program's definition, <br />drains with the river as flood flows recede. <br />Bureau of Land Management Sites <br />Bonanza Bridge Bottomland -The furthest upstream site, Bonanza Bridge (BB) Bottomland, is <br />located at river mile 290 (290 miles upstream of the confluence with the Colorado River). The Bonanza Bridge <br />itself is located approximately 3/4 of a mile upstream of the bottomland. A dirt road provides access up to the <br />site just off of Highway 45. The Bonanza Bridge Bottomland provides approximately 38 acres of floodable <br />• <br />2 <br />