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<br />Water Management Study: Upper Rio Grande Basin <br /> <br />further damage to the ecosystem. The consequences would include further: <br />constriction of the preferred range of native, warm water fishes; decline and <br />loss of native fish populations; reduction in water quality from the effects of <br />sewage and runoff; reduced populations of a significant variety of vertebrate <br />and invertebrate species; and local, if not actual, extinctions of invertebrate <br />species inhabiting the banks of wetlands. <br /> <br />Arresting and reversing the widespread changes in the Basin's ecosystem <br />will require a fundamental, systematic change in the public and private <br />activities affecting the plants, animals, soils, waters, climate, people, and <br />processes oflife that are interacting within the Basin. Some significant <br />corrective actions also will be required. Several recent reports highlight the <br />importance oftaking a broad approach to the management of aquatic <br />ecosystems and the water and related resources within such ecosystems <br />(National Research Council 1992; Pacific Rivers Council 1996). <br /> <br />, <br />'. <br /> <br />,'* <br /> <br />(',: <br /> <br />. <br />r <br /> <br />There has been no coherent, sustained effort to initiate and institutionalize <br />an ecosystem approach to resource management in the Basin. Some recent <br />efforts, however, have attempted to address the ecosystem-management <br />issues associated with some locations within the Basin. The largest of these <br />began in 1992, with the pivotal assistance of Senator Pete Domenici, when <br />an interagency team of scientists and a committee of concerned citizens <br />initiated development of the Bosque Plan (Crawford et al. 1993a). The plan <br />has no provisions for enforcement, however, and the results from this and <br />other efforts remain limited and their potential impacts on future <br />approaches to resource management remain uncertain (Finch and Tainter <br />1995; Shaw and Finch 1995). <br /> <br />" <br />,. <br /> <br />,~ <br />",: <br />f:~ <br /> <br />t: <br /> <br />~:~ <br /> <br />~,; <br /> <br />'-:~ <br />,',:" <br /> <br />B.2. Contributory Problem #2: Past and Current Practices Have Rendered <br />Water and Related Resources Unsuitable for Some Uses Without <br />Corrective Action <br /> <br />it <br /> <br />.';< <br /> <br />In most cases, the competing demands for the Basin's water and related <br />resources are not contending over pristine resources, Some resources are <br />naturally not suitable for all possible uses-some storm runoff into the Rio <br />Grande, for example, has naturally high levels of sediment-and virtually all <br />of the resources have been subjected to human manipulation for decades, <br />even centuries. Some of the uses have been so intense that resources have <br />become degraded in their ability to meet the needs of competing demands. <br /> <br />Ji <br /> <br />',<,. <br /> <br />;,{: <br /> <br />92 <br /> <br />rC2972 <br /> <br />,"'c-, <br />Iu:. <br />L'1 <br /> <br />,,;,>! <br />L.;,~ <br />1% <br />,h <br />