1994 Washington D.C. Briefing Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin

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IJ� ► FY 95 CONGRESSIONAL ACTION ITEMS .4 rBackground Fish and Wildlife Service The Fish and Wildlife Service contributes $824,000 annually to the Recovery Program for implementing high priority recovery activities consistent with its funding commitment to the Recovery Program. In the past, $624,000 have been in the form of endangered species recovery ' funds and $200,000 in the form of Section 6 Endangered Species Act funds that have been provided to the States of Colorado and Utah. These funds have supported a variety of high priority recovery activities which are listed in Table 1. In addition, the Service has provided additional funds to operate hatchery facilities being used to support stocking, research, public education, and refugia purposes. (By "refugia" we mean ponds used to temporarily hold fish in protected settings to prevent them from becoming extinct in the wild.) Support FWS Funds for the Recovery Program ' ($624,000- Recovery) 1 In FY 95, the President's proposed budget contains $624,000 of Endangered Species recovery funds for the Service to participate in the Recovery Program. The Recovery Program fully supports this proposed appropriation. ; r 1 � Earmark $200,000 Section 6 Funds ($200,000 - Grants to States) In FY 1992 and FY 1993, Congress earmarked $200,000 of funds to the States pursuant to Section 6 of the Endangered Species Act for recovery of the endangered Colorado River fishes. No Section 6 funds are earmarked for the Recovery Program in the FY 95 budget. The Section 6 budget for all of Region 6 of the Service will be $648,000 in FY 95; requests from the eight States in Region 6 for Section 6 funds in FY 95 are expected to total about $2 million. Dedicating $200,000 of the Section 6 funds to the Recovery Program from the Region's normal ' allocation will adversely and significantly impact the Service's ability to fund other high priority endangered species recovery efforts for the 67 listed species in Region b. ' Therefore, the Recovery Program requests that $200,000 of Section 6 funds be earmarked for the Recovery Program before the Service's formula for allocating Section 6 funds among the Regions is applied. Language should be included in the appropriations bill specifying this.