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Bureau of Reclamation budget <br />4. Support Bureau of Reclamation funds for the Recovery Program. <br />($6,373,000 requested in "Construction Program" funds) <br />Recovery Program participants request Congressional support for the $6,373,000 in <br />Bureau of Reclamation Construction Program funds for the Recovery Program, which <br />is included in the President's proposed FY 1996 budget. The funds would pay for water <br />acquisition and capital construction projects to help recover endangered fish, including: <br />• Fish passage: Reclamation funds will rehabilitate water diversion structures and <br />build fish ladders at several locations on the Yampa, Gunnison and Colorado rivers. <br />These activities will benefit the migratory Colorado squawfish and razorback suck- <br />er by giving the fish access to more than 100 miles of historic habitat and by allow- <br />ing unrestricted movement within their current range. <br />• Water acquisition: Reclamation will take the lead in evaluating opportunities to <br />acquire water from existing Federal and private water projects to enhance habitat <br />conditions for endangered fish. Water acquisition initiatives include: <br />— Evaluating the feasibility of more efficiently operating irrigation projects in the <br />Grand Valley, near Grand Junction, Colo., and dedicating the "saved" water to <br />endangered fish. <br />— Using water stored in several smaller Reclamation reservoirs to enhance late <br />summer flows in the Colorado River. <br />— Evaluating possibilities for coordinating Federal and private reservoir operations <br />in the headwaters of the Colorado River to enhance spring peak flows in the <br />Colorado. <br />— Evaluating the feasibility of enlarging Elkhead Reservoir in the Yampa River <br />Basin in exchange for acquiring large in- stream flow rights on the Yampa. <br />• Flood plain restoration: Historically, flood plains throughout the Upper Colorado <br />River Basin were inundated each year by spring runoff. But today much of the river <br />has become channelized by levees, dikes, rip -rap and the invasion of the exotic <br />plant, tamarisk, or salt cedar. Restoring these flood plains is thought to be especial- <br />ly important for the endangered razorback sucker and will benefit a variety of wet- <br />land- dependent wildlife. Several sites in Utah and Colorado are being evaluated in <br />FY 1995 for potential acquisition, restoration and/or management. Funding is need- <br />ed in FY 1996 to implement management and restoration plans at high priority <br />sites. <br />4 <br />