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<br />in the Grand Valley, which is the primary floodplain area in the remaining occupied <br />portion of the Colorado River, have been diked extensively during the past 100 years of <br />settlement. As a result, the river channel has narrowed and much of the historic <br />floodplain has been lost. The endangered fish are attracted to those few areas that <br />remain, making them especially critical habitats. <br /> <br />Three Recovery Program management activities aimed at preserving and enhancing <br />floodplain habitats in the Grand Valley are (1) the filing for instream flow rights to <br />protect future flows in the river, (2) a coordinated reservoir release program designed to <br />help meet the flow needs of the endangered fish and (3) a bottomlands restoration <br />program aimed at protecting existing floodplains and reconnecting portions of historic <br />floodplain presently disconnected from the channel. <br /> <br />Unfortunately, the loss of floodplain habitats is a continuing process. Under natural <br />conditions, the river was free to change course over time, meandering back and forth <br />across a wide floodplain; new channels being cut as old ones dried up. Cutoff oxbows <br />would stilI flood during high water creating pond-like conditions for the endangered fish, <br />critical for feeding and reproduction. During the remainder of the year, a series of side <br />channels associated with the main channel provided a complex array of with-in channel <br />habitats that the fish could exploit during periods of low flow, Le., riffles, pools, eddies, <br />backwaters, etc. Owners of land adjacent to the river naturally want to stabilize the river <br />banks to keep the river from encroaching into their property. Because of a lack of <br />adequate zoning, enterprises continue to spring up within the floodplain. Each year just <br />prior to or following spring runoff landowners seek permits to build additional earthen <br />dikes to protect roads, crop lands, grazing pastures, houses and gravel pits. <br /> <br />Although the Recovery Program cannot buy up all the land in the floodplain, pUIchase of <br />some key sites known to be important to the fish could go a long way towards assuring <br />the long-term protection of some of the critical habitat. Studies of squawfish and <br />razorback sucker use of the Grand Valley over the past ten years have concluded that <br />there are three to four sites that are especially important to the endangered fish <br />(Osmundson, pers. comm.). Each of these reaches consist of a complex of channels at <br />low water and at high water contain f100dable backwaters, low-lying depressional areas, <br />or actual ponds. Catch rates and telemetry studies indicate these are concentration areas <br />for endangered fish both during spring and to a lesser extent the remainder of the year. <br />These sites are: <br /> <br />1) the Hotspot to Island Backwater reach; <br />(includes the Griffith property) <br />2) the U.S. Sand and Gravel to Conn. Lakes reach; <br /> <br />3) the Walker Wildlife Area: <br /> <br />RMI 174.4-1775.9 <br />(1.5 rniles) <br />RMI 167.8-169.1 <br />(1.3 rniles) <br />RMI 163.0-165.5 <br />(2.5 rniles) <br /> <br />3 <br />