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and recovery of the species. The second step, in this process is to determine the potential <br />economic impacts of the proposed critical habitat designations. The final step is to decide <br />which proposed critical habitat areas, if any, should be excluded from designation based on <br />economic or other relevant impacts, and to determine costs and benefits associated with the <br />final designation. This final step will not be completed until public comments on this <br />document have been received. <br />Proper development of the links between the biology and the economics of the Colorado <br />Basin area is critical to the evaluation of the economic impacts of critical habitat designation. <br />Only if these links are clearly delineated can a dollar value on the impacts of designating <br />critical habitat be determined. Bridging the gap between the biological dimensions of this <br />study and the economic dimensions is a complex process. To properly estimate the impacts <br />of critical habitat designation it was necessary to estimate the combined economic effects of <br />listing and designating critical habitat. This set of results is presented in detail in Chapters <br />II-11, II-12, and II-13 of Volume II. The economic effects of critical habitat designation are <br />the incremental effects above and beyond those which may be attributed to listing the species. <br />Thus, economic effects of the critical habitat designation are those that remain after the listing <br />effects have been subtracted from the total effects. Chapter II-14 presents the methodology <br />for determining the incremental critical habitat impacts. Chapter II-15 presents the <br />incremental monetary impacts of critical habitat designation. <br />The economic team's efforts were directed along three principal lines. First, the economics <br />team worked with the biological team to identify the management practices that may need to <br />be altered in order to ensure the recovery of these fishes. Second, the economics team <br />identified the sectors of the economy that would be impacted based upon the potential <br />alteration of these management practices. These include the agricultural, hydroelectric, <br />mining/gas/oil, recreation, municipal, and industrial sectors. Direct economic impacts to these <br />sectors are discussed in Chapters II-9 and II-10. Finally, the economic team developed a <br />series of models to perform the analysis of the economic impacts due to the proposed critical <br />habitat designation. <br />I-2 <br />