Hot Topic: Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper CO River Basin

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c. Recovery and protection of rare species is to be a cooperative effort between the Federal government, the States, water and power users, and conservationists. This means, among other things, that the cost of providing instream flows and other recovery activities will be shared by these parties (see Section 5.0). d. Water rights for instream flows established under this process will be appropriated, or acquired, and administered pursuant to State law and will, therefore, be legally protected as any water right under State laws. Where water rights for instream flow cannot be obtained, they will be protected through contracts or administrative agreements with holders of appropriated water rights. Implementation of these principles will require a coordinated effort among all parties. One of the Implementation Committee's central duties will be to make recommendations to the Secretary and to the appropriate State agencies on maintenance of instream flows, as defined through the following processes. 4.1.2 Determining Habitat Flow Needs Instream flow needs are based upon the habitat requirements of rare fish species at various life stages (Appendix 6.1). The Instream Flow Incremental Methodology provides a useful framework for relating flow to maintenance of specific habitat needs. However, it is recognized that questions and uncertainties remain in efforts to correlate fish populations and habitat needs with instream flows. This is the reason for the unique approach described in this document. Under this program, research will continue, and new information will continually be integrated into the process for determining instream flows to assist in answering these questions and uncertainties. Instream flow requirements for the four rare fish species will be established through the following sequence of events: a. Sensitive reaches requiring specific instream flows will be identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service in consultation with the States and other appropriate parties. The Service will review and update the initial river reach prioritization document previously prepared by the Biology Subcommittee (Appendix 6.3) and will recommend revisions to the Implementation Committee, as necessary. b. The Service, in consultation with the States, will be responsible for further prioritizing those sensitive reaches to reflect (a) the reaches' biological significance, and (b) the timing of water development or other activities that might affect those sensitive areas. The purpose of this prioritization is to identify those reaches where the Implementation Committee should focus its time and resources in ensuring provision of instream flows for the four rare fish species. c. The Service will develop a prioritized work plan for identifying habitat needs including instream flow and other requirements, for the sensitive reaches. For example, the Service may determine that additional or new instream flow information is needed on an important river segment and that this work should receive a high priority. The Service will submit to the Implementation Committee, for its review 4 -2