3135

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 3135
• Author: Wiltzius, W. J.
• Title: Some Factors Historically Affecting the Distribution and Abundance of Fishes in the Gunnison River
• USFW Year: 1978.
• USFW - Doc Type: Final Report for Fishery Investigations of the Lower Gunnison River Drainage.
• Copyright Material: NO

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METHODS AND MATERIALS
LIMNOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Stream Flows
Mean monthly and annual historic streamflow records were obtained
from publications of the U.S. Geological Survey on file at the U.S.G.S.
field office in Grand Junction, Colorado. Emphasis was placed on sta-
tions with the longest duration of historical records: Taylor River at
Almont; below the Gunnison Tunnel; and the Gunnison River near Grand
Junction, Colorado. Considerable time was spent during the present
study in calculating a hypothetical station, called "Above Gunnison Tun-
nel," by adding discharges that were historically diverted into the Gun-
nison Tunnel to the discharges recorded below the Gunnison Tunnel.
Means were claculated for time periods associated before and after the
construction of the various major structures that now exist in the
Gunnison drainage. Discharge data from the Curecanti reservoirs were
supplied by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Power Operation Office in
Montrose, Colorado. Some records were also obtained from the Uncompahgre
Valley Water Users in Montrose regarding discharges from Taylor Park
Reservoir as well as discharges into the Gunnison Tunnel.
Temperatures
In November 1971, the Bureau of Reclamation installed three continu-
ous recording thermographs in the Gunnison drainage. The uppermost was
installed below the Gunnison Tunnel in the same area that Kinnear and
Vincent (1967) had operated a thermograph during portions of 1965 and
1966, before Blue Mesa Reservoir was in full operation. A second thermo-
graph unit was installed in the North Fork of the Gunnison River alongside