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<br /> <br />- ."') <br />fill,,.!/,, <br /> <br />The Y~pa River is lhe"faraestremainina essenTIailv unreQulated river In theupper <br />Colorado River Basin. and its inflow into !he Green River. 65 miles downstream of <br />- <br />FlaminQ Gorce Dam, ameliorates some effects of dam ooeralion on river flaw. sediment <br />load. and temperature (Muth et al. 2000). Holden /19801 concluded thatllows from the <br />Yamoa River. esoeclallv sprina peak flows. were crucial to the maintenance of the' <br />Green River's "laroe-river" characteristics and. therefore. very impOr1anUo mainlainrn'Q <br />suitable conditions in the Green River downstream of the COflfluence; The Yamp~$iver <br />supports resident subadull and adult Colorado pikeminnow~ contains one of four th(l <br />pnm.~ry Colorado pikeminnow spawning areas in the Upper Basin 1~ihe-5~T'l <br />jtt!m--Rrvet'r. and is a major producer of fish for the entire Green River sUQbasin (Tyus <br />and Karp 1989).-'fhe-coio,,,do-SqU3Wftstt--flecmrery-P/ttT'l--tUsrws 1'99t)--h/t!-lCenhfJed <br />lhe Yllr"p~.R1vet~I'>e-of--Ihe-~er ,1,&1 trllb-t1~t~~tnm-mus1 be--pl'Oleeted-before-tj,e <br />€oIoNldo--plkemt!'mOW-Cltl"t be co, f~'Ue-red t!hgrbl"lm-Uelistlng:- A small but apparently <br />sell-sustall'llng population of humpback chub eXIsts in lhe Yamoa River In~ Dinosaur <br />National Monument (Tyus and Karp 1989; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.l990a~ <br />2001a). l-he+tun,pbllck -€nub--Reeovery--Ptart-tt15F'r'f~ 1~90~r-fdenhftedlhe--'f1'trnplt <br />R1vetin O".,v~"\:1t"~.Q_ne qf~I~1'fTl'TUtl'V:~ery-I'lre"--for-the-hump-b~Ck--dlub: Arlull <br />~T'lrltftrval Spawning aggregatfons of adull razorback sucker have been ~ured-m <br />observed near the mouth of the Yampa R,ver,ilnd adult razorback suckers have been <br />caDlur~d upstr~ar:n to.t.he_mou:~_p'f,the Lltlle Srlilke ~iv~!J!,YY.s, ~!)~ ,Ka~[) 1j,82k!.- <br />Razortl1t~er-rlepend 01' ,,,mpa RiverJtows:to--~p8'\,nl'tg "d~.~-R1\'er; <br />The lower portion of the Yampa River was part of the historic range of t!'le bony tail and <br />is associated with some 01 the most recent captures of this very rare fish. The Bonylail <br />,'" '.,--".,-.-.- -..- <br />Recoveryp'lan (U,S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1990b) idenhfied the Yampa River wilhin <br />Dl!1osaur National Monument as a high pnomy recovery and/or restoration site-for lhe <br />"""".. <br /> <br />The LIllie Snake River provides approximately 28% of the Yampa River's now and 60% <br />of the 1'rVel'~-Y..mpa River'S sediment supply The sediment supply of the LIUfe Snake <br />River IS beheved to be important to the maintenance of backwater nursery areas utilized <br />by young Colorado pikeminnow in the Green ~Iver (Smith and Green lWL.f.dull <br />Colorado plkemlnnow have been captured UD in the LiWe Snake River upstream to near <br />-', ---, . "'-~'''''''''.' ,'" '.,- ',', <br />BacoS, Wvoml!1Q. and humoback chub have been captured In thcJower_10.!Tlil.es of the <br />Litlle S'nake River (U.S._Fish and Wildlife Service 2001a, 2001c): <br /> <br />3_2.2 RecovervAclions <br /> <br />Recovery actIons In Ihe Yampa River are focused on maintaining and legally protectl!1g <br />the natural now regime required to recover the endangered fishes. To achieve thiS <br />objechve. the Recovery Program is partIcipating In the development of a Yampa River <br />Management Plan, The purpose of the plan WIll be to provide and p~J~.stt~~ instream <br />ngw[l!,eds.of.the endangered fishes while proVIdIng water to meetl;:UfTentaod <br />fortlseeable future human needs III the Yampa River basin, <br /> <br />Colorado filE~d for a JunIor illslream.now water nght for the Yampa RIver between lhe <br />.-"'-.. <br />connuences of the Wiliiams Fork and the lillie Snake River riv~~ in December 1995. <br />FOr1y-eight statements of OPPOSItion were fIled against these filings in State water court, <br /> <br />15 <br />