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areas in the Green River. The top ranked sites were in the Ouray National <br />Wildlife Refuge, the next in the Jensen to Brennan Bottom area, followed by <br />sites downstream of Ouray. The lowest ranked sites were in the Browns Park <br />National Wildlife Refuge area and from Desert Spring and Moon Bottom to the <br />Green and Colorado river confluence. A vast majority (75%) of the bottomland <br />habitat types in the Green River sub-basin were floodplain terraces. Federal <br />agencies own most (750) of the bottomlands in the vicinity of Browns Park <br />National Wildlife Refuge. Forty-two percent of the land between Escalante <br />Ranch and Brennan Bottom was in private ownership.. All of the Ouray National <br />Wildlife Refuge bottomland sites are federally owned. Seventy-one percent of <br />the bottomland sites were on tribal lands between Ouray and Pariette Draw. <br />The majority of bottomland habitat between Desert Spring and the Green and <br />Colorado river confluence is federal land. <br />Unlike the Green River drainage, the top 13 ranked sites in-the Colorado <br />and Gunnison river drainages were scattered among four general areas. Along <br />the Colorado River, there were 10 bottomland habitat sites within the Debeque <br />area, eight sites within the 15-mile reach, and five sites within the 18-mile <br />reach. There were three sites within the vicinity of Delta, Colorado, along <br />the Gunnison River. <br />The top ranked site was the Walter Walker State Wildlife Area in the 18- <br />mile reach. Four other sites in the immediate vicinity ranked 6th and 10th. <br />Johnson Boy's Slough along the Gunnison River ranked 2nd, the Clifton Pond <br />area along the Colorado River ranked 3rd, and the Debeque I-70 Slough ranked <br />4th. Six other sites immediately downstream of the Debeque I-70 Slough ranked <br />9th and 11th. Floodplain terraces comprised 37% of the bottomland habitat <br />types, gravel-pit ponds 210, and side channels 200. Of the 110 bottomland <br />sites identified and inventoried along the 241 miles of the Colorado River, <br />51% or about 6,355 acres (2,572 ha) were in private ownership. Of the 48 <br />bottomland sites along 75 miles of the Gurnison River, 70% or about 2,221 <br />acres (899 ha) were in private ownership. Fifteen percent (1,826 acres [739 <br />ha]) of the ownership was in public (state and federal) ownership along the <br />Colorado River; 22% (697 acres [282 ha]) was in public (state and federal) <br />ownership along the Gunnison River. The greatest amount of bottomland habitat <br />along the Colorado River owned by the federal government (830) was within <br />Canyonlands National Park. The federal government does not own any <br />bottomlands between Rifle and Loma. The federal government owned or <br />controlled only 8 percent of the bottomland habitat along the Gunnison River <br />within a canyon-bound area between Roubideau Creek (rm 50 [rkm 81]) and the <br />Colorado River confluence. <br />Hydrological parameters such as the annual frequency, magnitude, and <br />duration of flooding at a site provide pivotal information that can be used to <br />determine if a site is suitable for enhancement or restoration. This <br />information could be used as an additional selection criterion to screen <br />sites. <br />In 1994, channel cross sections were established where temporary staff <br />gauges had been previously placed at seven bottomland sites adjacent to the <br />Green River and at nine sites adjacent to the Colorado and Gunnison rivers to <br />collect flow and elevation data from May through July. Stage vs. discharge <br />xiv