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~. Nel ~~ I. INTRODUCTION A. Purpose of the Recoverv Prooram The Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin (Recovery Program) is a cooperative effort to recover the Colorado squawfish, humpback chub, bony tail chub, and razorback sucker in the Upper Basin while providing for water development to prpceed, and in a manner compatible with applicable State and Federal laws. Participants in the Recovery Program include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service); the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; the Western Area Power Administration; the States of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; Upper Basin water users; and conservation organizations. I B. Backoround Since 1978, the Service has issued over 100 biological oplnlons on water project impacts on the endangered fishes in the Upper Basin. These opinions have concluded that the impacts of water projects and their associated flow depletions are jeopardizing the continued existence of the endangered fishes. The protection of endangered fish species of the Upper Colorado River Basin under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act threatened to embroil all interested parties in a confrontation between resource protection and resource development. The parties recognized that such a confrontation was unlikely to result in progress toward recovery of the listed species and could lend a measure of uncertainty to future water resource development in the Upper Basin. In response, the Service took the lead in organizing a Coordinating Committee to evaluate alternatives and develop a program for recovering the fishes while allowing water development to proceed in the Upper Colorado River Basin. After 3 years of data analysis and negotiations, the Committee finalized the Recovery Program, and in January 1988, the Governors of Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming; the Secretary of the Interior; and the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration executed a Cooperative Agreement for its implementation. C. Goal The goal of the Recovery Program is to recover and del ist the endangered fishes in the Upper Basin by restoring and establishing self-sustaining populations and protecting sufficient habitat to support them. Fifteen years has been established as the initial timeframe for completion of the Recovery Program. D. Recoverv Elements . The five principal elements of the Recovery Program are: 1) habitat management; 2) habitat development and maintenance; 3) native fish stocking; 4) nonnative species and sportfishing; and 5) research, data management, and monitoring. A description of these recovery elements is contained in Appendix A. I-I