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as possible, but cannot characterize it as "critical" habitat until it has <br />been officially designated as such by the FWS in a separate regulation. <br />Similarly, these plans may recommend the establishment of experimental <br />populations of listed species, but not whether such experimental populations <br />are essential or non-essential to species survival. The FWS must again issue <br />a separate regulation making that determination. Recovery plans are <br />fundamental guidance documents under the ESA, but they do not commit funds or <br />manpower. Recovery implementation is a matter for annual budgeting and action <br />by the FWS and cooperating agencies. <br />The current recovery plans for the humpback and bonytail chub were last <br />revised in 1990; the plan for the Colorado squawfish was last revised in 1991. <br />Region 6 of the FWS was given the lead for the development of these plans, but <br />was supported by an appointed team of experts on these fishes from throughout <br />the Colorado River Basin. While these plans address the recovery of the <br />listed fishes in both the Upper and Lower Basins, they preceded the critical <br />habitat designations, are otherwise out of date, and do not offer specific <br />prescriptions on where or how habitats should be protected, restored, or <br />managed. Region 6 also has the lead for the razorback recovery plan, whose <br />initial technical draft is scheduled to be circulated soon to a basin-wide <br />recovery team. The FWS has asked for an ecosystem framework for the razorback <br />plan into which updated recovery plans for the other three fishes may be <br />integrated. <br />The goal of the current recovery plan for the Colorado River squawfish is <br />generally stated in terms of protecting "naturally self-sustaining <br />populations" in three major recovery areas: the Green and upper Colorado River <br />subbasins, the San Juan River subbasin, and the Lower Basin. The plan does <br />not define what constitutes a self-sustaining population. Since the Colorado <br />squawfish populations in the Green/upper Colorado and San Juan subbasins are <br />separated by Lake Powell, this recovery plan assumes that these populations <br />are "distinct" under Section 3(16) of the ESA and may be independently <br />recovered and down or de-listed in one of these areas and not the other. The <br />Colorado squawfish no longer occurs naturally in the Lower Basin, and the <br />importance of recovery sites in the Lower Basin depends on whether self- <br />sustaining populations can be re-established and the needed streamflows can be <br />legally protected in that basin. <br />The general recovery goal for the humpback chub is defined in terms of <br />protecting five "viable, self-sustaining populations" and their habitat. This <br />plan recognizes five primary recovery areas which are currently occupied by <br />humpback chub, all in the Upper Basin or the Grand Canyon -- 1) the confluence <br />of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers in the Grand Canyon, 2) the Black <br />Rocks/Westwater Canyon reaches of the upper Colorado River, 3) the Green and <br />Yampa Rivers in Dinosaur National Monument, 4) Gray and Desolation Canyons <br />along the Green River, and 5) Cataract Canyon along the Colorado River just <br />above Lake Powell., and mentions that humpback might be re-introduced into <br />another area of the Grand Canyon. This plan neither suggests that the <br />humpback can be recovered independently in each of these areas, nor defines <br />what constitutes a viable, self-sustaining population. <br />The immediate goal of the recovery plan for the bonytail chub is to prevent <br />its extinction by establishing genetically diverse, captive populations in at <br />least two refugia. The highest priority sites for re-introducing the bonytail <br />suggested by this plan are all in the Upper Basin: 1) the Green and Yampa <br />rivers in Dinosaur National Monument, 2) the Green River in Gray and <br />Desolation Canyons, and the San Juan River. The plan characterizes Lake <br />Mohave bonytail population in the Lower Basin as a "wild refugium", and calls <br />for the evaluation of other Lower Basin areas for their potential as recovery <br />sites for this fish. <br />All of these recovery plans include monitoring of existing populations and