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Executive Summary <br />The Endangered Species Act (Act) provides for the designation of critical habitat necessary <br />for the survival and recovery of endangered species. Both the administrative actions of <br />listing a species and the designation of its critical habitat can affect economic activities <br />dependent upon resources utilized by the species. When designating critical habitat, the Act <br />requires that only the incremental economic impacts of the designation be determined. The <br />incremental economic impacts of critical habitat designation for four endangered Colorado <br />River fishes — the razorback sucker, the bonytail, the humpback chub, and the Colorado <br />squawfish — are presented in this report. <br />Economic Methodology <br />The study region encompasses Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah, <br />and Wyoming. Economic input- output (I -O) models were constructed for each State and for <br />the seven -State region. A computable general equilibrium (CGE) model also was developed <br />for the seven -State region. The models are aggregated to 20 representative sectors in the <br />economy. The time frame chosen for the study, 1995 through 2020, is the period projected <br />for recovery of the endangered fishes. <br />Linkages between the biological requirements for recovering the endangered fishes and the <br />economic activities in the region were assessed and these formed the basis for the economic <br />analysis. The biological requirements include adjustments made in the operations of Federal <br />reservoirs in the Basin and /or conservation actions for nonflow- related activities along the <br />rivers' 100 -year floodplain. The effects of recovery efforts on future water depletions in the <br />basin were also taken into consideration. The impacts of these possible changes on current <br />and prospective economic activities were then estimated for each State, the region, and the <br />National economy. <br />iv <br />