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oonfluenoe, the Rio Grande is a fast boulder-strewn trout stream with many deep pools and fast riffles whioh provide an exoellent variety of oonditions favorable to trout. Above the reservoir headwaters, ", and to a lesser extent below the dam site, the Rio Grande is fairly well entrenohed and bordered by alders and ooniferous timber (Plate 1). Within the reservoir si te, however, the Rio Grande flows through a wide valley in whioh pastures and meadows flank the brush-bordered ohannel (Plate 2). In oontrast to the mOre open upstream terrain, fran Wagon Wheel Gap to the South Fork oonfluenoe, the river is hellllled in by oanyons and a muoh narrower valley. 21. In the 62-m11e reaoh between South Fork and Alamosa, the Rio Grande flaws through the wide San Luis Valley and the river bottom ohanges from boulders and rubble to gravel and sand. Here too, with the lowering and olea ring of the water following spring runoff, the river with its numerous pools and pookets separated by riffles of varying depths is an attraotive and produotive trout stream. Below Alamosa to the Conejos River oonfluenoe at La Sauses, the Rio Grande winds through marshy land where drains and numerous tributaries inorease the streamflow. Unlike the area below South Fork in whioh the bottoms adjoining the river support oo-ttonwood and willow groves, the lower river mileage has little streamside vegetatim and the streambed gradient drops to about 2 feet per mile, resulting in a wide, shallow, exposed ohannel (Plate 3). 22. Six tributary streams within the reservoir site will be ct.) t- ..-I .,...\ affeoted by the projeot, Bellows Creek, Sunnyside Creek, Shallow Creek, Deep Creek, Fanners Creek, and Willow Creek. Bellows Creek flows through willow growths and meadows in a series of pools, 10