Congress approves continued funding for endangered fish recovery programs in Colorado, Western states

Endangered fish recovery programs in Colorado and three other Western states were given renewed access to federal funds thanks to a bill passed Wednesday by Congress. 

Lawmakers gave the go-ahead to the Bureau of Reclamation to spend tax dollars on the programs with just days left in a lame-duck session, which adjourns Friday. The news was welcomed in Colorado, where the programs help protect four threatened and endangered species in the Colorado River and San Juan River basins. 

“Local communities, Tribes, water users, and Congress — we’re all in to protect our native fish and rivers,” U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat who sponsored the Senate bill, said in a news release. “These programs are tried and true. Our extension will help continue them to save our fish and make our rivers healthier.”

This Fresh Water News story is a collaboration between The Colorado Sun and Water Education Colorado. It also appears at wateredco.org/fresh-water-news.

Lawmakers voted to reauthorize the federal funding for seven years for two programs: the Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program — which operates in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming — and the San Juan River Basin Recovery Implementation Program — which spans Colorado and New Mexico. The total funding amount is yet to be determined. The federal government allocated about $16.6 million, total, for the two programs between October 2023 and September 2024. 

The recovery program bill was included in the annual National Defense Authorization Act, which sets national security policy and recommended spending levels for the Department of Defense. The act still awaited President Joe Biden’s signature as of Wednesday.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Republican who currently represents the 3rd Congressional District in western Colorado, sponsored the bill in the House of Representatives to reauthorize funding for the programs. 

Through the programs, a wide network of federal, local and state agencies work together to try to stabilize and rebuild the populations of certain endangered species, including the razorback suckers, Colorado pikeminnow and bonytail. A fourth species, the humpback chub, has recovered enough that it was downgraded to threatened from endangered.

The fish species have lost vital habitat along the Colorado River and its tributaries, in part because of human uses, like developing former wetland areas, damming rivers or diverting the flow of water to farms and cities. Dry years, lower flows and higher temperatures have led to warmer water, offering prime habitat for nonnative predator fish, which eat and compete with the threatened and endangered species.

Farmers, reservoir operators, city water managers and conservationists across Colorado coordinate their water management plans to try to improve conditions for the species. 

These plans also help ensure that Colorado River water continues to flow through western Colorado — instead of being used elsewhere — supporting agriculture and communities along the way. 

Even students are involved in the effort. Every year, Palisade High School students help the Upper Colorado River program raise razorback suckers until they are old and large enough to be released into the river upstream from Grand Junction. The school released its thousandth sucker in May. 

Pat Steele, a science teacher at the high school who helped found the program, said it is awesome to see lawmakers from both parties work together. 

“That’s exactly what our lawmakers should be doing,” he said. “Working together and showing that example of bipartisanship, and showing our young people that this is how you get things done.” 

For program managers, the move offers greater clarity going forward. 

There was never a question that the programs would fold, but the Bureau of Reclamation is a major source of funding, said Michelle Garrison, a water resources specialist for the Colorado Water Conservation Board, one of the top water agencies in Colorado, and a representative of Colorado water users in the recovery efforts.

Without the legislation, the flow of funding could have been disrupted, potentially requiring cutbacks or making it harder to hire seasonal staff and order equipment, she said.

“Knowing it’s good to go really helps the planning process,” she said. It allows the network of partners to identify and prioritize what they need to focus on in coming years. “When you’re comfortable that you’re doing the best you can for the species, that gives you more certainty that you’re going to make sufficient progress.”