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• <br />The capture of 73 juvenile razorback sucker in a managed floodplain wetland <br />~ (Old Charley Wash) dominated by nonnative fish provides evidence supporting the <br />importance of floodplain habitat to razorback sucker (Modde 1996, 1997). These <br /> <br />captures represent one of the few times juvenile razorback sucker have been captured <br />despite known spawning (Modde 1996, 1997; Muth et al. 1998). However, survival to <br />recruitment (i.e., adulthood) was not demonstrated in the Old Charley Wash study. <br />Lack of survival beyond the larval stage to adulthood has been attributed to habitat loss <br />and modification and predation by nonnative fishes (Muth et al. 1998; Wydoski and <br />Wick 1998; Lentsch et al. 1996b). <br />~ Based on the assumption that floodplain wetlands provide critical rearing habitat <br />for razorback sucker, the Recovery Program initiated the Green River Floodplain <br />Connection and Levee Removal Study in 1996. The goal of the Levee Removal Study <br />• <br />was to evaluate the system responses to levee removal and make specific <br />recommendations concerning the value of floodplain re-connection for razorback sucker <br />• recovery (Lentsch 1996, Lentsch et al. 1996a, Birchell et al. 2002). However, because <br />there were very few razorback sucker in the Green River, answers to several important <br />questions pertaining to razorback sucker use of the floodplain were not answered <br />~ during the initial Levee Removal Study (Birchell et al. 2002). These questions were: <br />1) Can larval razorback sucker be entrained in the floodplain by lowering levees <br />to improve the river-floodplain connection? <br />• <br />2) Can they be entrained at high enough numbers to ensure some survival from <br />predation by nonnative fish and piscivorous insects? <br />• 3) Will razorback sucker that survive migrate from the floodplain during high <br />2 <br />• <br />