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. . May 7, 200 I, following the Basin States' meeting, among the principals from the Lower Basin States to discuss the status of the pilot projects and the trip to Washington, D.C. '.., At the April 26, 2001 meeting of the LCR MSCP Steering Committee, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) distributed a revised version of its "string-of-pearls" docwnent The string-of-pearls concept proposes a habitat restoration and management prescription along the Lower Colorado River corridor which consists of a series of large blocks of habitat ("pearls"), that are connected by linear, more narrow. corridors (the "string"). The document was largely prepared by the USFWS Lower Colorado River Ecoregion Team and staff from the USFWS Arizona Ecological Services Office in Phoenix, Arizona. Currently, members of the Steering Committee are reviewing the revised document and coordinating with the USFWS on the appropriate course of action for consideration in development of the MSCP. A copy of the revised document has been included in the Board folder for your information. I also prepared detailed comments on the USFWS' big river fishes recovery goals documents which have been circulated, as preliminary drafts, among the Basin states representatives of the Colorado River. As has been discussed at previous Board meetings, there is significant concern surrounding the specific draft recovery goals among members of the Basin States' wildlife resources agencies and water and power stakeholders basinwide, In fact, the State of Colorado, through the Governor's and Attorney General's offices, has requested that the publication of the draft documents be delayed until additional dialog has occurred between the states and USFWS. I have included a copy of the Board's comment letter in your folder for your information. Basin states' representatives met, via telephone conference call, on April 27 ,200 \ to discuss the current status of the Defenders of Wildlife, et al. v. Norton. et al. lawsuit. Representatives of the Departments of Justice and Interior also participated in the conference call. The government briefed the states on the proposed contents of its motion for summary judgement Briefs are due in May and June 200\. Status of California Fully Protected Species Efforts On April 24, 200 I. Messrs. Harris and Worthley attended an Assembly Hearing on the Fully Protected Species issue and the three bills currently before the California Legislature. The California Department of Fish and Game prepared an overview of the current status of each of the fully protected species, and provided several case studies which illustrated the problems associated with management of these species. One of the case studies included a description of the management issues associated with the Lower Colorado River and the razorback sucker. Assemblyman Kelley provided an excellent overview of the importance of the proposed legislation in the context of the development of California's Colorado River Water Use Plan and the MSCP. Mr. Jeffrey Kightlinger, Deputy General Counsel for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California also prepared testimony on behalf of the Colorado River water users. Assemblyman Florez indicated that additional hearings would be held in the near future. Also, Assemblyman Florez' fully protected species working group is scheduled to meet again later in May to continue its attempt to craft consensus legislation among all of the interested stakeholders. 4 ','