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acquisition of the Kemp/Breeze SWA, which included approximately 2.1 miles of Gold Medal trout water on the Colorado River, at an approximate cost of $2 million in 1993. V. DEMAND Background The term "demand" is used, and commonly misused, by the public and fishery professionals alike. It has meant "projected use" of the resource, the quantity of fish needed to maintain some level of angling success (e.g., catch-per-hour), and likewise the quantity of fish necessary to maintain or improve angler satisfaction. In this document, demand will have an economic slant that embodies two characteristics: 1) the desire for a commodity an 2) the ability or willingness to pay for it. In the past, "projected use" was derived by plotting historic trends in human population growth and license sales on the same graph, and then extrapolating into the future using population predictions. This "projected use" was then linked to fish production through the Angler Survey, which showed that the average angler caught "x" fish per day. Production goals were then obtained by multiplying "projected use" by "x" fish/day. This method proved unreliable--our own research showed that fishing participation, rather than increasing as a function of population growth, could actually decline. We also learned that there are several variables, besides the number of fish stocked, that affect catch rate. Later, the DOW's Categorization System was promoted as a way to better understand the variables contributing to angler "demand," and, therefore, was seen as a useful tool in setting fish stocking levels. "According to information obtained from the DOW and other sources, two main tasks must be completed to ensure stocking levels and hatchery productions are appropriate ... categorizing the waters managed ... [with] the Division's Fisheries Management Categorization Model and performing underlying data collection to identify and gauge supply and demand." (Colorado State Auditor 1995). While the Categorization System does a good job in characterizing the state's waters (by size, elevation and use levels), it has limitations. The primary limitation is that it reflects the su_nnly of hatchery fish rather than the demand for those fish. Demand for hatchery production also includes nonrecreational uses. Uses of fish maintained in our hatchery system include domestic brood stocks, special strains for research programs, information and education programs, trading/bartering with other states and producers, and threatened, endangered, or special concern species recovery programs. Though the quantity of fish requested of our hatchery system for these nonrecreational purposes might seem relatively insignificant, providing fish for these purposes often ties up substantial space and human resources. Rearing these small lots of fish often takes as much hatchery space as raising a large cohort. 29