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<br /><"::> <br />'-:) <br />c ,-' <br /> <br />squawfish's historical range in the following section of the San Juan River Basin (59 FR <br />13374). <br /> <br />~ <br />v..! <br /> <br />New Mexico. San Juan County: and Utah. San Juan County. The San Juan Riyer <br />from the State Route 371 Bridge in T, 29 N" R, 13 W" section 17 to Neskahai <br />Canyon up to the full pool elevation in the San Juan arm of Lake Powell in T, 41 S., <br />R. 11 E" section 26. <br /> <br />,,"' <br /> <br />In determining specific river reaches required to prevent extinction and ensure recovery of <br />the Colorado squawfish, the Service relied upon available biological information and the <br />species' approved Recovery Plan (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 1991), Information <br />relating to the species' biological and ecological needs, such as habitat, reproduction, <br />rearing, and recruitment, was used in determining if an area was needed for inclusion in <br />critical habitat. The revised Colorado Squawfish Recovery Plan provided both downlisting <br />and delisting criteria. During the consideration of critical habitat areas, downlisting criteria <br />were generally equated to the survival level; delisting criteria were related to the recovery <br />level. The reach of the San Juan River from Lake Powell to Farmington, New Mexico, <br />which incorporates the section of the river encompassing the project facilities and <br />impacted by their presence and operation, was included in the Recovery Plan as necessary <br />for both downlisting and delisting, Therefore. this portion of the San Juan River has been <br />identified by the Service as essential to the survival and recovery of the Colorado <br />squawfish. <br /> <br />RAZORBACK SUCKER <br /> <br />The razorback sucker, an endemic species unique to the Colorado River Basin, was <br />historically abundant and widely distributad within warmwater reaches throughout the <br />Colorado River Basin. Historically, raz~rback suckers were found in the mainstem <br />Colorado River and major tributaries in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, <br />Utah, Wyoming, and in Mexico (Ellis 1914; Minckley 1973)' Bestgen (1990) reported that <br />this species was once so numerous that it was commonly used as food by early settlers, <br />and further, that commercially marketable Quantities were caught in Arizona as recently as <br />1949. In the Upper Basin, razorback suckers were reported in the Green River to be very <br />abundant near Green River, Utah, in the late 1800's (Jordan 1891). An account by <br />Osmundson and Kaeding (1989) reported that residents living along the Colorad9 River <br />near Clifton, Colorado, observed several thousand razorback suckers during spring runoff <br />in the 1930's and early 1940's. In the San Juan River drainage. Platania and Young <br />(19891 relayed historical accounts of razorback suckers ascending the Animas River to <br />Durango, Colprado, around the turn of the century. Platania and Young (1989) also <br />reported the 1976 capture of two adult razorback suckers by VTN Consolidated, Inc., from <br />an irrigation pond adjacent to the San Juan River near Bluff. Utah. <br /> <br />In August 1990, the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (Lief Ahlm, Fisheries <br />Specialist. pers. comm.) interviewed two anglers from Aztec, New Mexico, who claimed to <br />have "commonly" caught razorback suckers in the Animas River near Cedar Hill bridge in <br />the 1930's and 1940's. When the two men were shown a battery of photographs, <br />including roundtail chub (Gila robusta), humpback chub (Gila ~), bony tail (Qili! <br />eleoansl. bluehead sucker (Pantosteus discobolus), flannelmouth sucker (Catostomus <br />latioinis), razorback sucker, and Colorado squaw fish, they both immediately identified the <br /> <br />8 <br />