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the Service's recommendations and about water availability or Compact allocations. These uncertainties will be periodically reviewed and the amount of legal protection that is explicitly modifiable can be continued, reduced or converted to less qualified protection. Also as a part of these periodic reviews, the Service can make additional recommendations for flow protection and the state could decide to protect additional flow amounts, with more or less qualifications about the subsequent modification of those amounts. Flow protection mechanisms are organized in many Recovery Action Plans according to their initial or dominant attribute. If a change in the ownership of a water right (by purchase, lease, etc.) is central to flow protection, then the mechanism is placed under "Acquire." A change in water right ownership to protect flows will usually be accompanied by a legal proceeding to change the nature or use of the water. right, but this proceeding is still considered to be part of the "acquisition" of flow protection. Except for acquisition of conditional water rights in Colorado, such water rights acquisition also will result in physical alteration of flow conditions and will not just protect existing conditions. Where flow protection involves filing for a new water right, it is placed under "Appropriate." With this mechanism, the ownership of the water right is established in the first instance, rather than being conveyed to a subsequent owner. In Colorado, the appropriation of an instream water right can be dated back to the action of the Colorado Water Conservation Board to advance to final notice a recommendation for an appropriation, but the Conservation Board also must make a water court filing to confirm the appropriation and to avoid the postponement of the appropriation's priority date. It may take two or more years from this filing to obtain a decree from the water court, depending on the nature of any litigation over the filing. In this case, the water right will have a relatively junior priority date, and only existing flow conditions can be protected. Flows also may be protected through the physical alteration of flow conditions by reoperating a reservoir or other component of an existing or new water project. This kind of flow protection is placed under "Deliver" in the Recovery Action Plans and will usually involve both a change of water right ownership, including the lease of storage water, and a change in the legal nature of the water rights. (A management agreement between federal agencies also may be involved as in the case of the Aspinall Units, and compensation will be required where storage water is already under contract.) Utah Legal protection of flows in Utah will be achieved differently than in Colorado. Several approaches can be taken under Utah water law to protect instream flows, including: 1) acquiring existing water rights and filing change applications to provide for instream flow purposes; 2) withdrawing unappropriated waters by governor's proclamation; 3) approving presently filed and future applications 6