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<br />4 <br /> <br />On January 21-22, 1988, the Secretary of the Interior; Governors ofWyorning, Colorado, and <br />Utah; and the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration cosigned a Cooperative <br />Agreement to implement the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in <br />the Upper Colorado River Basin (USFWS 1987), Current participants in the Recovery Program <br />include: the Service, Reclamation, WAPA, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, Environmental Defense <br />Fund, The Nature Conservancy, Colorado Water Congress, Utah Water Users Association, <br />Wyoming Water Development Association, and the Colorado River Energy Distributors <br />Association, The goal of the Recovery Program is to recover the listed species while providing <br />for new and existing water development in the Upper Colorado River Basin. All participants <br />agreed to cooperatively work toward the successful implementation of a recovery program that <br />will provide for recovery of the endangered fish species, consistent with Federal law and all <br />applicable State laws and systems for water resource development and use, Each signatory <br />assumed certain responsibilities in implementing the Recovery Program, <br /> <br />In order to further define and clarify processes outlined in sections 4,1.5, 4.1.6, and 5.3.4 of the <br />Recovery Program, a Section 7 Agreement and a Recovery Implementation Program Recovery <br />Action Plan were developed (USFWS 1993), The Agreement established a framework for <br />conducting section 7 consultations on depletion impacts related to new projects and impacts <br />associated with existing projects in the Upper Basin, Procedures outlined in the Agreement are <br />used to determine if sufficient progress is being accomplished in the recovery of endangered fishes <br />to enable the Recovery Program to serve as a reasonable and prndent alternative to avoid the <br />likelihood of jeopardy and/or adverse modification of critical habitat. The Recovery Action Plan <br />was finalized on October IS, 1993, and has been reviewed and updated annually. <br /> <br />Since the implementation of the Recovery Program, over 200 biological opinions have been issued <br />on water depletions to the Upper Colorado River Basin, The Recovery Program and <br />implementation of the Recovery Action Plan have served as the reasonable and prndent alternative <br />for these jeopardy opinions, <br /> <br />On March II, 1996, the Recovery Program's Implementation Committee directed the <br />Management Committee to develop a strategy to provide and protect flows in the IS-Mile Reach <br />of the Colorado River. The Service's Regional Director then provided a letter (AprilS, 1996) to <br />the chair of the Management Committee detailing the request from the Implementation <br />Committee, The letter requested that the strategy contain a discussion of how the flow and <br />nonflow activities in the Colorado River sub-basin work together. At the same time there were <br />discussions on whether the Section 7 Agreement was working in the IS-Mile Reach and on <br />legislation for long-term funding of recovery actions, The Management Committee formed a <br />workgroup to further identify the issues and recommend a strategy for their resolution. By the <br />end of 1996, the workgroup recommended that the issues could be best resolved through a <br />biological opinion on Recovery Program activities in the IS-Mile Reach, However, many issues <br />regarding flow needs, options for providing and legally protecting water, the importance of <br />nonflow actions in recovering the fish, and a framework for conducting future section 7 <br />consultations remained unresolved. To resolve these issues, the State of Colorado convened a <br />