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002618 Draft Cooperative Agreement To Implement the Management Plan for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin ENTERED BY Colorado River Water Conservation District, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, Wyoming State Engineer's Office, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1.1 The purpose of this Cooperative Agreement (Agreement) is to set forth our intent to implement the Management Plan for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin (hereinafter "Management Plan"; September 2004) as a component of the Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River Basin (Recovery Program), in accordance with the Cooperative Agreement implementing the Recovery Program (entered into January 1988; extended December 2002), and consistent with the recovery plans for four endangered fish species of the Colorado River Basin, the humpback chub (Gila cypha), bonytail (Gila elegans), Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius) and razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus). 1.2 The Management Plan is designed to facilitate compliance with the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) for current depletions of approximately 125,000 acre-feet in Colorado and 43,000 acre-feet in Wyoming and new depletions in excess of current levels of approximately 50,000 acre-feet in Colorado and 23,000 acre-feet in Wyoming. New depletions in Colorado have been divided into two increments-an initial increment of30,000 acre-feet and a second increment of20,000 acre-feet. 1.3 By entering into this Agreement, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) has undertaken a federal action and has completed formal intra-Service consultation as required under Section 7(a)(2) of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The product of that consultation was a Programmatic Biological Opinion (PBO) for the Yampa River Basin that concluded that the Recovery Program and the Management Plan can serve as the basis Appendix B - Cooperative Agreement B-1