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species that are likely to be found in the project area include the Colorado <br />squawfish, razorback sucker, American peregrine falcon, bald eagle, and <br />Southwestern willow flycatcher. None of the Federally-listed threatened or <br />endangered mammals or plants are known to occur in the project area. The <br />proposed control of nonnative fish species is related to the recovery of the <br />Colorado squawfish and razorback sucker in the Upper Colorado River Basin. <br />Information on birds occurring in the project area were obtained from lists <br />by Andrews and Righter (1992), a 1995 list by the Colorado Natural Heritage <br />Program, and an undated but relatively recent Bird Check List for Mesa <br />County, Colorado (Appendix A). The American peregrine falcon is a rare <br />migrant that can inhabit the riparian zone. The Grand Valley Audubon <br />Society reported in 1987 that the bald eagle is an unusual but regular <br />winter visitor that occasionally perches in large cottonwood trees in the <br />riparian zone of the Upper Colorado and Gunnison rivers. The interior least -- <br />tern is a very rare migrant using open water areas of the Grand Valley. The <br />Southwestern willow flycatcher inhabits the riparian zone and forages over _ <br />open land habitats. This flycatcher was reported to breed in the Grand <br />Valley. <br />E. Historic and Cultural Resources. The Ute Indians inhabited the Grand Valley <br />prior to 1881 and Mesa County was part of the Ute Reservation established <br />by a 1868 treaty (Mesa County Planning Commission 1996). The Utes were <br />moved to Utah in 1881 -- allowing white settlers to homestead in the Grand <br />Valley. Various artifacts from the Ute Indians still remain in the Grand <br />Valley. Native American Indians no doubt inhabited or used floodplains <br />along the Upper Colorado and Gunnison rivers. <br />Some areas where floodplain ponds occur of the Colorado and Gunnison rivers <br />have been drastically altered through gravel mining operations so that any <br />artifacts that may have been present are more than likely either buried or <br />were removed with the gravel. <br />F. Socio-Economic Factors. Gravel mining is the major commercial economic <br />factor in floodplain areas. where ponds occur. Mining constituted about 1% <br />of the jobs by industry in Mesa County in 1996 and was one of the highest <br />paying occupations in the area with an average annual wage of about $36 <br />thousand (Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce 1997). <br />Presently, some recreational fishing and hunting occurs in floodplain ponds <br />along the Colorado and Gunnison rivers. Most of the recreational fishing <br />in these ponds is for nonnative warmwater fish species. However, some ponds <br />(e.g., Corn Lake) are presently stocked with large numbers of rainbow trout <br />that test positive for whirling disease and are sought by many anglers. The <br />1991 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation <br />- Colorado documented that 96.4% of 778,300 Colorado anglers fished for <br />salmonids and devoted 80.7% of nearly 6.3 million angler-days to <br />recreational fishing for salmonids (U.S. Department of the Interior, Fish <br />and Wildlife Service and U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census <br />1993b). Few Colorado anglers in the Upper Colorado River actively <br />participate in warmwater fishing although opportunities are available to <br />them. Surveys in 1991 estimated that 10,000 to 13,000 anglers fished <br />approximately 66,000 days for warmwater fish species in the Northwest Region <br />12 <br />