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from the Strawberry and Duchesne rivers (Figure 1), though Duchesne River flows are diverted <br />into the reservoir at the Knight Diversion and would not normally flow into the reservoir. The <br />reservoir is primarily a walleye, smallmouth bass, and brown trout fishery. Yellow perch were <br />recently introduced into the reservoir and are now abundant. <br />Locating major sources of these nonnatives to the river system was identified as the first <br />step in controlling the spread of these species and the negative impacts these species have on <br />recovery efforts for endangered fish species, particularly Colorado pikeminnow and razorback <br />sucker. <br />Operation records for the reservoir show that spills have occurred regularly from 1985 <br />through 2006 (13 of 22 years). The reservoir is operated to return to maximum capacity every <br />spring as a result of spring peak flows. This operational plan essentially means that spills are <br />likely to occur in years where spring flows are high enough to return reservoir levels to the active <br />storage elevation even after compensating for drawdowns over the previous summer and fall. <br />Spills generally occur in June with a duration ranging from one week to one month. <br />This four-year study identified locations (spillway or outlet) and rates of escapement of <br />nonnative fish from Starvation Reservoir during releases (which are manually operated from the <br />outlet located below the reservoir surface) and spills (which occur naturally when the reservoir is <br />full and surface water passes over the spillway). This report presents the results of this work in <br />addition to a synthesis of recent data and literature on fish populations in the Duchesne River and <br />Strawberry River adjacent to Starvation Reservoir as an aid in the evaluation of impacts of <br />escapement. <br />2 <br />