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Recovery Program director gives progress update By John Hamill Recovery Program Direc:tor 1he Recovery Program continues to make progress on a variety of fronts. This newsletter illustrates this progress and the complex nature of actions to recover endangered fish. Other major activities are described below. Flaming Gorge After several years of study to deter- mine the impacts of the Bureau of Reclamation's Raming Gorge Damon endangered fish in the Green River basin, biologists have recommended that the dam be operated to more close- ly match tI1e river's natui-aI. flows. 1he U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to issue a biological opinion in July calling for higher flows in the spring and lower. more stable flows in the late summer, fall and winter. The Recovery Program will conduct additional studies over the next three years to test the effects of the modified flows on the endangered fish and to monitor rpeir populations. Water Acquisition A senior scientist will be hired this year to conduct an independent review of current approaches and activities related to developing iIow recommen- dations for the endangered fish. . The Colorado Water ConServation Board is conducting a study of the amount of water available in the 15- mile reach of the Coloi-ado River for a possible junior in-stream .flow appro- priation to be filed in 1992. The Nature Conservancy continues to negotiate purchase of Cross Moun- tain Ranch, which has a senior, abso- lute water right on the Yampa River near the confluence of the UttIe Snake River. The feasibility of a small reservoir in the Yampa River Basin to meet recre- ation and future water demands in Routt and Moffat counties is being studied. Such a reservoir would be located upstream of habitat occupied by the endangered fish using a portion of the Colorado River Water Conservation District's conditional Juniper-Cross Mountain water rights, and could open the way for the District to seIl the remainder of its water rights to the Fish and WIldlife Service for conversion to in-stream flows. Washlngton,D.C. briefing Several Recovery Program partici- pants traveled to Washington, D.C. in February to update key members of Congress. their staff and various agen- cies on Recovery Program activities. The visit confirmed that the Recovery Program is viewed positively by Congress, the Department of Interior and Office of Management and Budget Members of the Colorado. Utah and Wyoming delegation are to send letters to tI1e House and Senate appropriations committees requesting a $250,000 increase in Fish and Wildlife Service funds for the ReCovery Program. Priorities for the 1992 Work Plan The Recovery Program recently requested proposals for studies and activities for fiscal year 1992 (October 1991 to September 1992). New areas to be considered for funding include: pro- jects related to restoration of endan- gered fish in the Gunnison River; an evaluation of Colorado squawfish stocked in the Colorado, Gunnison, and White rivers; management of non- native fish; and bony tail chub and rnzorback sucker habitat requirements. Reserochers can shoot 500 miles of river in three days, identify, measure backwaters in secoods From VIDEO. page 6 helps Ihem to identify river features on the videotape. Researchers attach the video camera to a specially made mount beneath the Bureau-owned helicopter. When air- borne, one person watches a television- like monitor inside the cockpit and describes the habitat on a tape recorder. The audio tape is used later to identify . river features that are not clearly identi- fiable on the video. From the air. researchers can quickly identify backwaters, which look like "fmgers" off the river, and side chan- nels at the river's edge - features that may serve as endangered-fish habitat . "Backwater habitat is one of the key variables for the survival for the Colorado squawfish," Pucherelli said. These areas are especially important for young squawfish, which need pro- tection from predators in the river's main channel. Backwaters may also benefit the other species of rare fish. . 'The assumption is that what's good for the squawfish is good for the other three endangered fish," said Rich Oarlc, a fonner Bureau researcher. After shooting 20 videotapes of the river. Bureau researchers return to the office to begin the painstaking, six- month process of analyzing the tapes by computer. But researchers say the end product is wortlLiI.J!ying to count and mea- sure backwaters from the ground could several months, and river flow levels and number of backwaters could vary greatly over that time; Pucherelli said. With the helicopter, researchers can collect videotape of 500 miles of river in just three days. Meanwhile, biolo- gists can count samples of fish in the river, and both sets of data can be cor- related to more accurately predict long- tenn population trends of the fish. Studying the river from the air also 7 gives them a more complete perspec- tive. From the ground, researchers may see only a fraction of a large backwater. In fact. without the aerial videotape, it would be nearly impossible for researchers to even locate all the river's backwaters. But by analyzing video- tape taken from the air, reseai-chers can see, identify and measure any backwa- ter in a matter of seconds. "You could be standing right next to a backwater and not be able to identify it because of the elevation or nearby vegetation;' said Kathy Szabados. an environmental biologist with the Bureau. "You can't see the big picture from the ground." .. . ... .. . .. . ........ .. ..". .... ...... i:~l~it~~ "199f;..9i'cancer".').,, ..'..,...., ,", .....,.'., .." ".' ......,.. ..: :::.:--:::. =".::.: ","" .:.. :.: =" : .:~ : :".:: :. : .... : : ...:. .. ....... .