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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY <br />Starvation Reservoir, located in northeastern Utah in the Strawberry River drainage, is a <br />3,310 surface acre reservoir managed for both recreational and agricultural water uses (Figure 1). <br />It is a popular fishing location and contains walleye (Sander vitreus), brown trout (Salmo trutta), <br />rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), yellow perch (Perca flavescens), and smallmouth bass <br />(Micropterus dolomieu). Of these popular sportfish species, smallmouth bass and walleye have <br />been targeted by the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (Program) as <br />being problematic for the recovery of the four big-river endangered fishes, Colorado <br />pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus), bonytail (Gila <br />elegans), and humpback chub (Gila cypha). Because Starvation Reservoir is operated to <br />maximize annual downstream water availability throughout the summer and fall (by filling to the <br />active storage level during spring flows), the Program targeted Starvation Reservoir for <br />evaluation of nonnative escapement potential beginning in 2002. The information gathered from <br />this study is intended to aid in the discussion of whether or not management recommendations <br />are necessary (i.e., screening the spillway, altering timing of spills, reducing magnitude of spills, <br />etc.) to prevent or to limit escapement of target species from the reservoir. <br />The Division of Wildlife Resources (Division) had initially planned to sample spills <br />directly by suspending a net over a section of the spillway during the annual spill; however, this <br />was not feasible in accordance with operation protocols for the reservoir. Instead, crews began <br />intensive drainings of both the outlet stilling basin (outlet basin) and the spillway stilling basin <br />(spillway basin) in an effort to evaluate escapement (Figure 2). Evaluation occurred through <br />multiple drainings each year: one draining towards the beginning of the year to clear the stillings <br />basins of all fish present at that time (initial draining) and one towards the end of the year to <br />viii <br />