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.0 '-:.., C,.;) ; ,', CJ 01 8 relatively large amount of clean cobble and gravel substrates (Bleisner and Lamarra 1993), that should support larger standing crops of algae and invertebrates which comprise the diet of juvenile and adult razorback sucker (Bestgen 1990, Minckley et al 1991). This area is also geomorphologically very complex and provides numerous slow velocity areas. The Upper Utah Site above Aneth, Utah, provides a high degree of channel braiding. This is an intermediate location between the Bluff and Mixer sites and may provide communication between the separately stocked populations. The Upper Utah and Mixer sites should have less angling pressure than the Bluff Site, due to limited accessibility by road. The fourth stocking site at RM 158.6 was later added to help improve retention of stocked razorback sucker in the San Juan River. D. INTERRELATIONSHIPS WITH OTHER PROJECTS OR PROPOSALS The proposed plan has been formulated to complement and support the ongoing research effort for the Implementation Program. The Program itself was established to foster such research and coordinate the numerous activities ongoing and proposed for the San Juan River Basin with potential to impact the endangered fish species. Other activities that may occur in the Basin include, but are not limited to, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' permitting responsibilities for dredge and fill activities in waters of the Untied States through section 404 of the Clean Water Act, each respective State and Tribal resource agency's responsibilities for management and protection of resident fish and wildlife resources, and other Federal, State, and Tribal land management entities with responsibilities within the Basin. II. ALTERNATIVES A. NO ACTION Under a No Action alternative, the experimental stocking plan would not be implemented. Other research commitments of the Implementation Program now underway would continue and other, less timely and less efficient methods would be employed to gain the required information on the species in the Basin. B. EXPERIMENTAL STOCKING OF RAZORBACK SUCKER IN THE SAN JUAN RIVER All experimental razorback sucker stock are F1 progeny of San Juan River arm of Lake Powell razorback sucker that were captured near Piute Farms Marina. These offspring are fish from paired matings that took place at Ouray National Fish Hatchery in 1992. Separate groups of these fish were raised at Colorado State University and Ouray National Fish Hatchery (NFH) before being transferred to the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources' Wahweap Warmwater Fish Hatchery (Wahweap) in the winter of 1992, and the spring of 1993, respectively. These fish were dominated (approximately 97%) by progeny representing a single paired mating. All razorback sucker that were not used for