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<br />Draft Environmental Assessment: <br />Establishment of a New Population of <br />Kanab Ambersnail in Grand Canyon <br /> <br />CHAPTER 1: PURPOSE AND NEED FOR ACTION <br /> <br />A. THE PROPOSED ACTION <br /> <br />In the Biological Opinion for the 1996 experimental Beach/Habitat-Building Flow (BHBF), the U. S, <br />Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) set forth Reasonable and Prudent Measures (RPM) related to <br />minimizing incidental take ofKanab ambersnail (KAS; Succineidae: Oxy/oma haydeni kanabensis <br />Pilsbry,I948), Specifically, the USFWS established the following Terms and Conditions associated <br />with the RPM, stating: <br /> <br />"Before another habitat-building flow, Reclamation (V,S, Bureau of Reclamation; <br />USBR) will enter into informal consultation with the Service (VSFWS) to evaluate <br />test flow studies, the establishment or discovery of a second population of Kanab <br />ambersnail in Arizona, and reinitiate formal consultation with the Service if <br />incidental take will exceed the 10 percent as established in the 1995 biological <br />opinion, " <br /> <br />In layman's terms, "incidental take" can be defined as the loss or death of individuals (in this case, <br />KASs) as a result of man-made distwbances or activities in the affected environment, Based on 1997 <br />data for Vaseys Paradise (IKAMf 1998) a 45,000 cfs (1275 m'/s) BHBF would currently exceed the <br />10% incidental take limit for KASs, and thus require USBR to reinitiated formal consultation with <br />USFWS, <br /> <br />The Arizona Game and Fish Department (AGFD) entered into cooperative agreements with the <br />Department of Interior, Central Utah Project Completion Act (CUPCA) Office, the Bureau of <br />Reclamation Upper Colorado Region (USBR), and the Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct habitat <br />evaluations for establishment of at least one new wild population of KAS in Arizona, and to establish <br />a zoological refugium population using AGFD's 12-step reintroduction process (AGFD 1987), This <br />12-step process was also used for reintroduction of California condors and black-footed ferrets in <br />Arizona, AGFD's 12-step process involves environmental assessments, National Environmental <br />Protection Act compliance, and review by the Arizona Game and Fish Commission, federal agencies, <br />expert biologists, and the public, USBR has committed to provide logistical support for AGFD to <br />establish wild KAS populations and mitigation activities to satisfy Biological Opinion requirements <br />(USBR 1997). <br /> <br />To increase the probability of establishing one viable, self-sustaining, wild population ofKAS and <br />thus satisfy terms and conditions of existing biological opinions, AGFD plans to relocate KASs from <br />Vaseys Paradise (VP) to more than one site in the Grand Canyon region, The first proposed <br />