Program Elements

The following are the main program elements identified when the Program was first established.

• Protection of genetic integrity and management and augmentation of populations involves completing genetics management and augmentation plans, establishing refugia with stock taken from the wild, and augmenting wild populations of endangered fish species.

• Protection, management, and augmentation of habitat involves identifying important reaches of the San Juan River for different life stages of the endangered fish species by mapping current conditions, determining relationships between flow and habitat, and determining flow needs. In addition, augmentation of habitat includes providing fish passage around migration barriers.

• Water quality protection and enhancement involves monitoring existing water quality conditions, evaluating historic information, identifying types and sources of contamination, investigating changes in water chemistry, and pursuing actions to diminish or eliminate water quality problems that limit recovery.

• Interactions between native and nonnative fish species involves determining the distribution and abundance of nonnative species, identifying and characterizing habitats used by the nonnative fish, discontinuing stocking of nonnative species in areas where endangered fish occur, and control of nonnatives through removal efforts.

• Monitoring and data management is necessary to evaluate status and trends of endangered fish species as well as other native and nonnative species to assure the Recovery Program's overall success in achieving recovery goals.