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<br />Dallas Creek Project, Colorado (BR) <br /> <br />-21- <br /> <br />Project development will cause little change in waterfowl populations. <br />The presence of Ridgway Reservoir may entice additional migrant <br />waterfowl into the area. Some limited nesting may occur. <br /> <br />In addition to project impacts on game animal resources, about 4,700 <br />acres of native wildlife habitat will be eliminated through project <br />induced changes in land use. A resultant irreplaceable loss of the <br />associated nongame wildlife populations will occur. These populations <br />will not be assimilated into adjacent habitats and will be lost. <br /> <br />Wildlife resource evaluations are summarized in Table III. This <br />summarization shows that without project modification for wildlife <br />purposes, there will be a loss of 809 man-days of hunting and 670 <br />man-days of nonconsumptive recreational wildlife use. <br /> <br />Plan of Development for Fish and Wildlife Resources <br /> <br />The lessons learned from reservoirs built in the past have shown <br />the need to design outlet works for larger reservoirs, such as Ridgway <br />Reservoir, to provide a method for regulating temperature of released <br />waters. The Ridgway Reservoir outlet works would have a double-level <br />outlet making it possible to draw from two water levels of different <br />water temperature and/or quality. Mixing of these waters would allow <br />the manipulation of temperature and water' quality in the Uncompahgre <br />River downstream from the dam. The maintenance of water temperatures <br />and quality most suitable for trout would help preserve the value of the <br />downstream fishery. Estimated capital costs of these works allocated <br />to fishing purposes would be $460,000 and would be a Section 5 cost. <br />No allocation of operation and maintenance costs has been made to fishery <br />purposes. <br /> <br />Maintenance of any quality of fishing in the Uncompahgre River <br />and the forks of Dallas Creek requires stream flow regimens <br />that would provide suitable aquatic habitat to sustain adequate <br />populations of trout. Project provided flows would also prevent <br />future deterioration of habitat quality in project impacted streams <br />by assuring a base flow. The value of these stream releases must be <br />predicated upon maintaining these flows throughout the full length <br />of the channel segments specified. <br />