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. - (5) streams where water right acquisitions or donations are being considered, . Since populations of greenback cutthroat trout and Colorado River cutthroat trout are so widely distributed throughout the South Platte, Arkansas, and Colorado River basins, a watershed strategy (at the sub-basin level) is the most logical approach for securing ISF protection for these species, In other words, stream lists will be developed from the Greenback Cutthroat Trout Recovery Plan (1998) and the Colorado River Cutthroat Trout Conservation Strategy (1999) using a systematic watershed approach, There are 23 greenback cutthroat streams and 49 Colorado River cutthroat streams in need of ISF protection, Although the range of the Rio Grande cutthroat trout does not cover as large of a geographic area, it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint to use the stream list in the Rio Grande Cutthroat Trout Status Report (1998) to generate a watershed plan for ISF protection for this species, There are approximately 135 stream segments in the Rio Grande basin in need of ISF protection for this species, In addition to the stream segments, the three native cutthroats are also found in numerous natural lakes; natural lake level water rights may be needed on some of these lakes as well, Methodologies for the quantification of ISF requirements for species such as the South Platte and Arkansas River natives and some of the western slope natives are still under development. As soon as it is clear where these research efforts are pointing, ISF quantification data should be gathered on St. Vrain Creek, Plum Creek, and other South Platte, Arkansas, and Colorado River tributaries where native fish populations have been found, Oui prior commitment to DPOR will be fulfilled when ISF data is collected on the remaining state parks streams, Data is still needed for Bonny Reservoir SP, 16 Colorado State Forest streams, 3 streams at ElevenmiIe SP, and 2 streams at San Luis Lake SP, .Most of the Gold Medal and Wild Trout designations already have ISF protection, The streams in this category still in need of ISF protection are the Roaring Fork River, Laramie River, Rio Grande, North Platte River, Animas River, and Los Pinos and CochelOpa Creeks, Most of the streams with leased or acquired public access also have ISF protection but there are a few that are still lacking protection, The only streams that fit into this category that have not already been identified in other categories are 2 streams in the North Platte basin, As for the last category of priorities - streams with pending water right acquisitions or donations for instream flow, the only streams currently known to fit in this category are Coal Creek, Middle Boulder Creek, and South Boulder Creek (all in Boulder County), Field data is needed on these streams to support these pending activities, Staff Recommendation The staff recommends that the Commission: (1) approve the attached list of priority areas for CWCB final action during the 2001 appropriation cycle (ATTACHMENT A), (2) approve the attached list of priority areas for instream flow data collection (ATTACHMENT B), and (3) authorize staff to transmit these priority lists to the Colorado Water Conservation Board for their consideration at their next regularly scheduled meeting (March 20-21, 2000), .