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MAY lQ82 Three inventories, contracted by the Bureau of Reclamation, serve to identify and quantify the wildlife of McElmo Basin: Smith, Norwin F. 1979. Aquatic Inventory: McElmo Creek Project, Colorado. Colorado Division of Wildlife. 92 pp. Burdick, Harold E. 1979. Wildlife Inventory: McElmo Creek Project. Colorado Division of Wildlife. 35 pp. Somers, Preston. 1979. Inventory of Terrestrial Nongame Animals of the McElmo Creek Unit Area, Colorado River Basin Salinity Control Project, Colorado. Fort Lewis College. 113 pp. Smith indicated that McElmo Creek, which is fed by irrigation return flows and proceeds westward for 36 miles to its confluence with the San Juan River, has extremely poor water quality with high salinity and turbidity conditions. Biomass of fish taken during the inventory indicated 1.9 pounds of game fish per acre (channel catfish and green sunfish) and 12.9 pounds of non-game fish per acre (carp, suckers and various minnows). The aquatic inventory conducted surveys on 45 tributaries to HcElmo Creek. These tributaries are typically dry or almost so during the winter months. Only speckled dace and fathead minnows were collected from them. No fishery exists in the streams, and the available sports fishery in the area is supplied primarily by 5 reservoirs managed by the Colorado Division of Wildlife. These are: Denny Lake, Narraguinnep, Puett, Summit and Toten reservoirs. Numerous small ponds are located within the study area also. Burdick's study addressed those wildlife species generally classified as economic or those associated with sport hunting or trapping. The following are those species inventories by Burdick (Table Ill-I). Habitats on which the onfarm portion of this study will have the greatest potential impact are riparian and wetlands as associated with irrigation, and, to a lesser degree, cropland. 111-18 001854