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12 Table 1. The estimated benefits in acre-feet made available from the Grand Valley Water Management Project and the Orchard Mesa Check Settlement (Grand Valley Water Management Project Environmental Assessment, September 1998). Years Water Legally protected up to canal Made Natural flow Hydrologic provided at capacity available water not Type Palisade through protected Pipeline - not Municipal/ protected Recreation Agreements Normal 9,000 16,257 28,779 1,803 Wet 9,000 0 65,500 6,827 Dry 9,000 19,551 37,348 4,640 stabilization, and lower spring flows, One element of the Recovery Program involves enhancing, restoring, and protecting natural floodplain habitats. An inventory of these habitats was completed for 871 miles of the Colorado, Green, Gunnison, Yampa, and White Rivers, Floodplain habitats are being restored along the Colorado River to prepare the ecosystem for reintroduction and reestablishment of razorback sucker populations. Two sites along the Colorado River have been restored by connecting bottomland habitat to the river and shaping the habitat to facilitate draining during low flow periods to avoid harboring nonnative fishes, One project, at 29% Road (also known as Gardner Pond) involved partially filling in an old gravel pit and constructing a connection to the Colorado River. Ongoing studies are evaluating the use of gravel pit ponds that have been reshaped to drain and behave as ephemeral floodplain habitats for adult Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker. The spring of 1998 was the first of a 3-year evaluation period, Intensive sampling was done at Gardner Pond and an adjacent pond, known as Pickup Pond, A total of 376 native fish including adult Colorado pikeminnow were captured in these two ponds. The second project is a partnership effort between the Recovery Program, the Service, the City of Grand Junction, the Riverfront Commission, and the Mesa County Soil Conservation District located near the confluence with the Gunnison River at the Jarvis site. Prior to the 1950's this site was a northern side channel to the Colorado River, In the 50's it was diked off from the river and mined for gravel, then the gravel pit was used as a municipal dump and disposal site for uranium mill tailings, After the pit was filled in, the site was used as an auto salvage yard, In the late 1980's, the City of Grand Junction purchased the site and removed all the junk cars, then the Department of Energy removed all the radiological contaminated waste, leaving the site close to the original river elevation, To restore the site, a notch has been constructed in the dike between the river and the excavated area and the site has been shaped to drain during low water, A set back dike was constructed to protect adjacent property, During high water, the site is inundated with water from the river and provides habitat for endangered fishes, and as the river drops, the