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Q��ENT OF lye F1 tvs <br />United States Department of the Interior <br />FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE s <br />�4q H 3 �0a <br />Ecological Services <br />764 Horizon Drive, Building B <br />Grand Junction, Colorado 81506 -3946 Q <br />IN REPLY REFER TO: c <br />c <br />ES /GJ- 6- CO -04 -F -012 -Y PO41 <br />TAILS 06E24100- 2013 -F -0098 <br />April 5, 2013 <br />Memorandum <br />To: Environmental Protection Specialist, Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and <br />Enforcement, Denver, ColWado __ <br />From: Western Colorado Supervisor ish Wildlife Service, Ecological Services, <br />Grand Junction, Colorado - Y --�4w <br />Subject: Trapper Mine Permit Re ewal Application No. 6 (RN -6) <br />This responds to your February 28, 2013, request for formal consultation under section 7 of the <br />Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended, and additional information you provided <br />via email on April 3, 2013. Your request is for the Trapper Mine permit renewal No. 6 (RN -6) <br />located near Craig Colorado. The subject project will cause an average annual depletion of <br />160.10 acre - feet/year to the Yampa River, which may affect the endangered Colorado <br />pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus Lucius), razorback sucker (Xyr-auchen texanus), humpback chub <br />(Gila cypha), bonytail (Gila elegans), and their designated critical habitat. <br />A Recovery Implementation Program for Endangered Fish Species in the Upper Colorado River <br />Basin was initiated on January 22, 1988. The Recovery Program was intended to be the <br />reasonable and prudent alternative to avoid jeopardy to the endangered fishes from impacts of <br />water depletions to the Upper Colorado River Basin. In order to further define and clarify the <br />process in the Recovery Program, a section 7 agreement was implemented on October 15, 1993, <br />by the Recovery Program participants. Incorporated into this agreement is a Recovery <br />Implementation Program Recovery Action Plan (RIPRAP) which identifies actions currently <br />believed to be required to recover the endangered fishes in the most expeditious manner. <br />On January 10, 2005, the Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) issued the final Programmatic <br />Biological Opinion (PBO) on the Management Plan.for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River <br />Basin (this document is available for viewing at the following internet address: <br />httn : / /v«,vw.coloradoriverrecovery .ors, /docutnents- publications /section- 7- consultation/yampa- <br />river- pbo.html). The Service has determined that projects that fit under the umbrella of the <br />Yampa River PBO would avoid the likelihood of jeopardy and /or adverse modification of critical <br />habitat for depletion impacts to the Yampa River basin. The Service has determined that if the <br />