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. c.' 1--:'" (.J " <. ...:j ~.. 14 development and unregulated off-road vehicle use. Application of agricultural herbicides and pesticides may also harm the species and its pollinators. Mesa Verde cactus is known from only five isolated populations of northwestern New Mexico and southwestern Colorado. Three of the New Mexico populations occur on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The Mancos milkvetch was listed as an endangered species on June 27, 1985. The species is known only from northwestern New Mexico and extreme southwestern Colorado. It is most commonly found in scattered populations between the town of Towaoc, Colorado, and the Chaco River in New Mexico. The primary threats to the plant are habitat destruction through surface disturbance associated with energy development and conversion to other uses such as road and utility rights-of-way, and by illegal collecting. Agricultural pesticides may affect the pollinators of the milkvetch. Twelve of the thirteen extant populations are primarily on lands of the Navajo Nation and Ute Mountain Ute Tribe. The bald eagle was listed on February 14, 1978, as endangered in the conterminous United States, except for Washington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, where its status is threatened. The reasons for its decline and subsequent listing included chemical contamination, chiefly by organochlorine pesticides, causing severe population declines and local extirpation throughout the species' range, through reproductive failure and direct toxicity; other contributing factors included degradation and loss of habitat, killing, and human disturbance. Bald eagles enter New Mexico in October and November and leave in March or early April. While in the state, most tend to congregate around reservoirs and other sizeable bodies of water, including larger rivers such as the San Juan. The predominantly piscivorous bald eagle utilizes fish and waterfowl for up to 90 percent of its diet. Since wintering bald eagle surveys were initiated by the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish in 1982, a gradual upward trend in abundance has been observed. Mirroring the state-wide trend, abundance of bald eagles wintering along the San Juan River and around Navajo Reservoir have also increased. Recent findings of contaminants in the San Juan River and in areas adjacent to the river have focused attention on the concerns of heavy metal, hydrocarbon, and selenium contamination and subsequent impacts upon the predatory and scavenging bald eagle. The peregrine falcon was listed as endangered in 1970 because of pesticide-induced reproductive failure. Peregrine falcons feed almost exclusively on birds; pigeons, medium- sized passerines, shorebirds, and medium to small waterfowl. Although no peregrine aeries are currently known within the San Juan River Valley affected by the proposed action, the species may utilize the area during migration and prey upon avian species feeding along the river or its adjacent floodplain. The Colorado squawfish was listed as endangered on March 11,1967. Habitat alteration, fragmentation, and degradation arising from dam construction; and competition and