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Management Plan for the Endangered Fishes
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A draft environmental assessment (EA) has been published for the Management Plan for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin.
See topic below 'Where Can I get Information' for copies of this draft Environmental Assessment.
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What is the Management Plan for the Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin?
Who developed this Management Plan?
What is the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program?
Why are these fish endangered?
Why should I care about these fish?
What needs to be done to recover the endangered fishes?
Can the endangered fishes be recovered within the Yampa Basin alone?
How do previous eradication efforts reconcile with current efforts to recover th
Why is a Management Plan needed?
What are the next steps in the planning process?
When will the Management Plan and EA become final?
Will the Management Plan restrict water development in the Yampa Valley?
Are the people of the Yampa Basin being asked to compensate for impacts elsewher
Why are sport fish being removed from the Yampa River?
What are the nonnative fish species of primary concern?
What is being done to reduce the threat of nonnative fishes to the endangered fi
How will the results be evaluated?
What will happen to the nonnative fishes that are removed?
Will nonnative fish management reduce sportfishing opportunities in the Yampa Ri
Do the Management Plan and EA address a proposed expansion of Elkhead Reservoir
What will happen to the sport fish currently in Elkhead Res during construction?
How will the Management Plan affect the citizens of the Yampa River Basin?
Where can I get information?
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What is the Management Plan for the Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin?
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The Management Plan describes a series of management actions designed to promote recovery of four endangered native Colorado River fish species as the current and future water needs of the people of the Yampa River Basin are met.
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Who developed this Management Plan?
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Developed in cooperation with the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program (Recovery Program) and with the assistance of the Yampa River Basin Partnership, the draft Management Plan was published by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) in July 2003. Although the Management Plan was edited and published by the Service, it was developed in close cooperation with the Yampa River Basin Partnership and other Yampa Valley residents representing diverse interests, including agriculture, industry, mining, business, private property, local government, recreation, education, and environment. In addition to regular meetings of the Partnership, issues were aired in a variety of public forums, that had been publicized in local newspapers and radio. Comments on an earlier draft of the Management Plan were considered and addressed in the current version.
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What is the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program?
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Established in 1988, the Recovery Program is a voluntary, cooperative partnership involving state and federal agencies, environmental groups and water and power user organizations in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. Its purpose is to recover four fish species listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act of 1973 (ESA), as amended, while water development proceeds in accordance with federal and state laws and interstate compacts. These species are the humpback chub (Gila cypha), bonytail (Gila elegans), Colorado pikeminnow (Ptychocheilus lucius), and razorback sucker (Xyrauchen texanus).
Progress toward their recovery enables human use and development of water from the Upper Colorado River Basin to proceed in compliance with the ESA. Since 1988, recovery actions implemented by the Recovery Program have provided ESA compliance for more than 700 water projects in the Upper Basin depleting approximately 1.7 million acre-feet of water. Recovery actions such as flow management, habitat restoration, nonnative fish management and stocking endangered fishes are the measures by which the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determines if progress toward recovery of the endangered fish is sufficient to allow the Recovery Program to continue to provide ESA compliance for water use and development.
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Why are these fish endangered?
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Numerous changes in the river environment since the early 1900s adversely affected certain native plants and animals. Among those changes, water depletions for human use, stream-flow regulation, instream barriers to migration, and nonnative competitors and predators, like northern pike, bass, and catfish, have contributed to the decline of the four endangered fish species.
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Why should I care about these fish?
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These “big-river” fishes are endemic to the Colorado River Basin, found nowhere else in the world. They evolved 3-5 million years ago and are uniquely adapted to the rigorous conditions typical of our Southwestern rivers. Once harvested for food by American Indians and early settlers, they are part of the lore of the American Southwest, as well as our natural and cultural heritage. These species are “in danger” of extinction throughout all, or a large portion, of their historic range. Because these fishes are so rare, they are protected by state laws and the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). In passing the ESA, Congress reflected society’s belief that rare species should be saved whenever possible. Symptomatic of deteriorating environmental conditions, their decline also serves as a warning that other native species of the Colorado River ecosystem may be at risk.
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What needs to be done to recover the endangered fishes?
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has prepared recovery goals that identify site-specific management actions to minimize or remove threats and specify the numbers of fish required for self-sustaining populations. The recovery goals identify the need to maintain and protect suitable habitats, including instream flows of sufficient magnitude, duration and frequency. Measures are being implemented in both the Colorado and Green River subbasins to provide these flows and to restore, protect and enhance habitats needed by the endangered fishes. Nonnative fishes in the Colorado River system also were identified as one of the major threats to the endangered fishes. The goals detail actions to minimize impacts from nonnative fishes to include reducing their abundance through removal and relocation. In other cases, installing fish screens may be sufficient to prevent escapement of nonnative fishes from ponds and reservoirs into the river where they might interact with the endangered fishes. Recovery efforts are also underway to construct fish ladders, produce and stock endangered fish, and monitor results of these actions. Downlisting of the fishes from “endangered” to “threatened” and removing the species from ESA protection (delisting) will be considered once the necessary management actions have been achieved and the fish populations have met recovery goal criteria.
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Can the endangered fishes be recovered within the Yampa Basin alone?
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No. The Yampa River populations of Colorado pikeminnow and razorback sucker also occupy the Green River during portions of their life cycles. The Green River provides critical nursery habitat not available in the Yampa River. One population of humpback chub resides in Yampa Canyon. However, recovery also requires geographically separate, redundant populations to ensure that if one population is lost, other self-sustaining populations would survive.
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How do previous eradication efforts reconcile with current efforts to recover th
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In the 1960s, certain restricted river reaches were poisoned with rotenone, a naturally occurring fish toxicant, in conjunction with two new water projects, Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming and Navajo Reservoir in Colorado and New Mexico. The purpose of this activity, carried out by state wildlife agencies, was to remove carp, channel catfish, redside shiner, yellow perch and other introduced species that might compete with or prey upon stocked trout. Flaming Gorge and Navajo were the only projects involved. There has been no concerted, basin-wide effort to eradicate native non-game fishes, as some people have alleged. Moreover, native warmwater fishes, including the endangered fishes, were not considered a major threat to trout fisheries and were not the target of these “eradication” efforts, although some native fishes were killed inadvertently. Subsequent fish surveys concluded that small numbers of roundtail chub (possibly bonytail), humpback chub, Colorado pikeminnow, and razorback sucker were killed by the rotenone, but further reductions in their populations occurred primarily due to the reservoirs flooding more suitable river habitat, and changes in river flows and water temperature downstream from the dams. These studies concluded that although the rotenone operation killed some of these fish, it did not lead to the endangerment of the species.
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Why is a Management Plan needed?
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The ESA requires federal agencies to conserve endangered species and promote their recovery (i.e., removal from the list of threatened and endangered species). Principal threats to the four endangered Colorado River fish species include depletions of water for human use and abundance of competitive and predatory nonnative fish species. To ensure recovery, these threats must be removed or lessened. To compensate for expected growth of water depletions for human use during the next four decades, the Management Plan quantifies the impacts of current and future depletions on instream flows and proposes measures to offset these impacts, providing a means by which non-federal water projects can be brought into compliance with the regulatory requirements of the ESA.
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What are the next steps in the planning process?
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To implement this Management Plan, the Service will sign a Cooperative Agreement with the states of Colorado and Wyoming. Before signing the Agreement, however, the Service must first fulfill the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), for which the Service published a draft Environmental Assessment (EA) in July 2003 to assess the impacts of the Management Plan. Before the Plan and EA become final, however, the public was given an opportunity to provide oral and / or written comments.
n addition, to meeting the requirements of the NEPA, the Service will initiate consultation under Section 7 of the ESA, which requires federal agencies to consult with the Service whenever their actions may adversely affect species listed as threatened and endangered or adversely modify their designated critical habitat. The product of this particular intra-Service consultation will be a Programmatic Biological Opinion (PBO) for the Yampa River Basin.
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When will the Management Plan and EA become final?
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The Management Plan and EA are expected to be final 30 days after the close of the comment period early in 2004 All comments, both written and oral, will be considered in preparing the final EA - Environmental Assessment for the Plan.
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Will the Management Plan restrict water development in the Yampa Valley?
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Not at all. The Recovery Program operates within the bounds of Colorado water law and relevant interstate compacts. The Management Plan anticipates that additional depletions will be developed to meet future human needs through the year 2045, based on demand estimates developed by Colorado and Wyoming. Estimates of future human water needs were developed after extensive research and interviews with knowledgeable in-basin water managers. This information was used to estimate how much water would be needed in the future to augment instream flows to benefit the endangered fishes. The cost of acquiring water for instream flow augmentation will be borne by the Recovery Program. Other measures included in the Management Plan are intended to offset the impacts of depletions and, in doing so, support recovery of the endangered fishes. Water development beyond the demand projections described in the Management Plan is possible, but could require further ESA consultation based on revised assumptions.
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Are the people of the Yampa Basin being asked to compensate for impacts elsewher
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No. It is not the intent of this Management Plan to compensate for impacts of projects outside the Yampa Basin. While it is true that water development projects in other basins have had a greater impact on the endangered fishes than development to date in the Yampa Basin, those projects are required to mitigate their own impacts. Flow recommendations for the Green River downstream from the Yampa River rely on releases from Flaming Gorge Dam, which can compensate to a certain extent for depletions and peak-flow storage in the Yampa Basin. But Flaming Gorge cannot mitigate impacts to the Yampa River itself.
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Why are sport fish being removed from the Yampa River?
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To recover the endangered fishes, current threats to their survival must be minimized or removed. Nonnative fish species, including some sport fish, prey upon the endangered fishes or compete with them for food and habitat. Although other factors may have led to their decline, the abundance of large nonnative predators continues to impede their recovery.
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What are the nonnative fish species of primary concern?
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Although there are more than 40 nonnative fish species in the Upper Colorado River Basin, northern pike (Esox lucius), channel catfish (Ictalurus punctatus) and smallmouth bass (Micropterus dolomieui) are the species considered to pose the greatest threat to the endangered fishes. All three species are known to prey upon and eat fishes. Since introduction into the Colorado River Basin, their range has expanded to overlap with that of the endangered fishes, resulting in increased potential for predation and competition. These nonnative species are active predators and will consume relatively large prey, including endangered fishes. Their abundance and range continues to increase.
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What is being done to reduce the threat of nonnative fishes to the endangered fi
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The Recovery Program is conducting an experimental nonnative fish management project to determine if populations of targeted nonnative fishes can be reduced to levels that will enable the endangered and other native fishes to coexist and thrive. Since 2000, biologists have transferred northern pike from the Yampa River to local fishing ponds as part of a study to determine if removing this top predator species would reduce the threat to endangered Colorado pikeminnow. Northern pike have also been actively removed from the Green River in Utah since 2000.
In 2003, biologists began studying channel catfish, smallmouth bass and northern pike in portions of the Yampa, Colorado, Green, White and Duchesne rivers in the states of Colorado and Utah. For the purpose of the study, each river was divided into treatment and control sections. In the treatment sections, targeted nonnative fish species will be removed. In control sections, targeted nonnative fish species will be captured, tagged and returned to the river alive.
The Recovery Program is also working with the states of Colorado and Utah to control the release and escapement of nonnative fishes into the river system. For example, to stop the introduction of problematic nonnative fishes into habitats occupied by native endangered fishes, an agreement was signed between the Service and the states of Colorado, Utah and Wyoming to review and regulate all stockings of nonnative fish within the Upper Colorado River Basin.
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How will the results be evaluated?
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Follow-up sampling will determine if management efforts have reduced the numbers of nonnative fishes in sections where they were removed. Monitoring of endangered and other native fishes will determine if Recovery Program activities, which include nonnative fish management, result in increased numbers of endangered fishes. This information will help identify the level of management needed to minimize the threat of nonnative fishes to the endangered fishes to satisfy criteria necessary to recover these species. An annual assessment of data will determine future nonnative fish management actions.
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What will happen to the nonnative fishes that are removed?
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In some river sections, targeted nonnative fishes will be marked or tagged and returned to the river; in other sections they will be euthanized. Where practical and appropriate, the target species will be removed, marked or tagged and relocated to local ponds or reservoirs.
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Will nonnative fish management reduce sportfishing opportunities in the Yampa Ri
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Not necessarily. The Recovery Program is working with the states of Colorado and Utah to support recreational angling by adhering to state management plans for each river system. Efforts will be made to implement management actions that will lessen the impact on sportfishing opportunities. In locations where nonnative fishes will be removed, efforts will be made wherever practical to relocate these fish to local ponds and reservoirs that are publicly accessible to anglers. But, if successful, relocation of sport fish will change the nature of angling opportunities from the river to ponds and reservoirs. Although some anglers and outfitters have expressed opposition to these ongoing activities, others have expressed support, and the use of the Yampa State Wildlife Area ponds by anglers continues to increase as the public becomes more aware of this program.
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Do the Management Plan and EA address a proposed expansion of Elkhead Reservoir
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Yes. The proposed expansion of Elkhead Reservoir is one of 13 alternatives considered to provide a reliable water supply to maintain instream flows for the endangered fishes as water depletions increase in response to human demands for water. Moreover, the Colorado River Water Conservation District is planning an expansion of the reservoir to serve a portion of that human need. The total expansion (less than 12,000 acre-feet) will avoid impacts to existing dwellings and other structures on private property. The EA for the Management Plan also evaluated impacts of Elkhead expansion and other augmentation water supply alternatives, as well as the other elements of the Management Plan. In addition, a separate site-specific EA will be prepared for the Elkhead expansion.
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What will happen to the sport fish currently in Elkhead Res during construction?
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The Colorado Division of Wildlife is exploring options to contain nonnative fish in a conservation pool during the 2004–2005 construction period. Measures must be sufficient to ensure that escapement of nonnative fish into the river is minimal. However, the reservoir will not be open to public fishing or other recreational activities during the construction period. The Recovery Program has agreed to relocating certain nonnative fish removed from the river into the expanded reservoir, once completed, in accordance with a reservoir management plan the Colorado Division of Wildlife will develop.
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How will the Management Plan affect the citizens of the Yampa River Basin?
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For most people, the potential benefits of the Management Plan will be largely transparent, though significant. Everyone in the Yampa Valley is a water user, regardless of occupation. In addition to irrigation and domestic water supply, thermoelectric generation facilities provide both jobs and electricity to the people of the Yampa Valley. The Management Plan will benefit these consumers by compensating for the impacts of ongoing operation and future expansion of this sector, which is expected to experience the most dramatic growth in water consumption in the next 40 years. However, the Management Plan does not dictate how or for what purpose water will be developed in the future. Water will be developed in the future, in accordance with Colorado and Wyoming water law, as the demand for water arises.
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Where can I get information?
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Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
P.O. Box 25486, DFC
Lakewood, CO 80225-0486
303-969-7322, ext. 225
ColoradoRiverRecovery@fws.gov
Recovery Program Website: http://coloradoriverrecovery.fws.gov/
Yampa River Management Plan: http://mountain-prairie.fws.gov/fisheries/yampaea.htm
A draft environmental assessment (EA) has been published for the Management Plan for Endangered Fishes in the Yampa River Basin. Public meetings were held in the Yampa Valley during August 2003 and comments accepted through August 31, 2003.
The draft Management Plan and EA are available on line at web site listed above. A printed copy or pc-compatible CD will be mailed upon request by contacting the Colroado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program at 303.969.7322extension 225 or email:
ColoradoRiverRecovery@fws.gov
In addition, limited copies are available at the Yampa Valley locations of: Bud Werner Library, 1289 Lincoln Ave in Steamboat Springs, Hayden Town Hall, 178 West Jefferson Avenue in Hayden, Moffat County Public Library, 570 Green Street in Craig and Little Snake River Valley Libary, 105 2nd Avenue in Baggs, Wyoming. For more information, contact Gerry Roehm at 303-969-7322 x 272 or email: gerry_roehm@fws.gov
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