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~~ ' <br />INTRODQCTION <br />The Duchesne River is the largest tributary drainage basin of the <br />Green River in Utah's Uintah Basin with a total drainage area of <br />over 4,200 square miles. Only the White River collects flows from <br />a comparable drainage basin, just over 4000 square miles. Both the <br />Duchesne River from the west and the White River from the east, <br />enter the Green River within two miles of each other near the small <br />community of Ouray, Utah. .. <br />Beginning in t late 1978, heightened interest in three federally <br />endangered (Colorado squawfish Ptychocheilus lucius, humpback chub <br />Gila c~ha, bonytail chub Gila elegans) and one threatened <br />(razorback sucker Xyrauchen texanus. since listed as endangered) <br />fish species in the Green River Basin resulted in sharply increased <br />efforts to understand the occurrence, distribution and basic <br />biology of these native fishes. Research programs were intiatiated <br />on the Yampa River in Colorado, the Green River below the Yampa <br />River confluence, and the White River in both Utah and Colorado. <br />Both the Yampa and White Rivers were, at the time, free of mainstem <br />impoundments. In 1984, the mainstem White River was impounded just <br />above Rangely, Colorado by the Taylor Draw Dam. <br />Very little interest or research effort on endangered fishes <br />carried over to the Duchesne River. This was likely because the <br />Duchesne River drainage had already been greatly impacted by trans- <br />1 <br />