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Summary The information contained in this report and the associated instream flow file folder forms the basis for staff s instream flow recommendation to be considered by the Board. It is staff's opinion that the information contained in this report is sufficient to support the fmdings required in Rule 5.40. Colorado's Instream Flow Program was created in 1973 when the Colorado State Legislature recognized "the need to correlate the activities of mankind with some reasonable preservation of the natural environment" (see 37-92-102 (3) C.R.S.). The statute vests the CWCB with the exclusive authority to appropriate and acquire instream flow and natural lake level water rights. In order to encourage other entities to participate in Colorado's Instream Flow Program, the statute directs the CWCB to request instream flow recommendations from other state and federal agencies. The Bureau of Land Management recommended this segment of Little Dolores River to the CWCB for inclusion into the Instream Flow Program. Little Dolores River is being considered for inclusion into the Instream Flow Program because it has a natural environment that can be preserved to a reasonable degree with an instream flow water right. The BLM is very interested in protecting stream flows because the Little Dolores River is the only stream within an area of more than one hundred square miles managed by BLM that is capable of supporting a salmonid fishery. Little Dolores River is 29.7 miles long. It begins in the highest elevations of Glade Park near Fruita Reservoir at an elevation of approximately 9,500 feet and terminates at the confluence with the Colorado River in Utah at an elevation of approximately 4,300 feet. The Little Dolores River is located within Mesa County. Little Dolores River generally flows in a westerly direction. The subject of this report is a 2.5-mile segment of Little Dolores River beginning at the confluence with Bieser Creek and extending downstream to the Upper Saxbury Ditch (see Map). The proposed segment is located southwest of the Town of Fruita. The staff has received only one recommendation for this segment, from the BLM. The recommendation for this segment is discussed below. Instream Flow Recommendation(s) BLM recommended 2.4 cfs, summer, and 1.0 cfs, winter, based on its June 24, 1997 and October 15, 2003 data collection efforts (see Appendix A). The modeling results from this survey effort are within the confidence interval produced by the R2Cross model. land Status Review Total Length Land Ownership Upper Terminus Lower Terminus (miles) % Private % Public Bieser Creek Upper Saxbury 2.5 30% 70% Ditch Biological Data The BLM has conducted field surveys of the fishery resources on this stream and have found a natural environment that can be preserved. As reported in the letter from BLM to the CWCB -2-