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<br /> <br />OJ1593 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />Water requirements at fishing lakes and fish hatcheries are based on <br />consumptive use. Additional quantities necessary for circulation, <br />aeration, and the like reenter the streams as return flow and are not <br />lost. Estimated consumptive use for the region in 1965 for fishery <br />purposes is shown in the following list. <br /> <br />State <br /> <br />Acre-Feet <br /> <br />Arizona <br />Colorado <br />New Mexico <br />Utah <br />Wyoming <br /> <br />564 <br />2,659 <br />224 <br />3,220 <br />30 <br /> <br />Total <br /> <br />6,697 <br /> <br />Fishery developments within the basin have expanded since 1965. The <br />1974 level of consumptive water use for these purposes is estimated <br />as some 18,000 acre-feet for facilities within the portions of the <br />five States concerned. <br /> <br />Although the effects would be less direct than upon the fishery <br />resources, the uSe of water for energy development is also expected to <br />affect the land-based wildlife resources within the basin. Expanded <br />energy production would require additional land for power sites and <br />transmission facilities and also result in a diverse array of socio- <br />economic impacts such as increased human populations, suburban growth, <br />allied service industries, expanded road networks, and the like. In <br />view of these possibilities, comparable 1965 reference information is <br />presented also for the wildlife resources. <br /> <br />Two-thirds of the region is in public ownership under Federal, State, <br />or local administration. Because of this preponderance of public <br />lands, large populations of forest and rangeland wildlife continue to <br />exist and provide abundant opportunity for hunting by residents and <br />nonresidents alike. Table 5 shows the land status within areas of <br />key habitat (defined as that part of a species' range that is limiting <br />or controlling of its numbers) for selected species of wildlife and <br />illustrates the relationship of wildlife to public lands. Of the <br />species inventoried on~y waterfowl use private land more extensively <br />than public land. <br /> <br />r <br /> <br />The relative importance of various plant types within key habitats for <br />selected wildlife species is shown in Table 6. For example, the two <br />types of vegetation that characterize winter habitat for mule deer-- <br />a zone of pinyon-juniper at higher levels and a zone of northern desert <br />shrub, predominantly sagebrush, at lower elevations. <br /> <br />19 <br /> <br />