Project Details

The Woundfin (Plagopterus argentissimus) is endemic to the Virgin River in Utah, Arizona, and Nevada and has been federally listed as an endangered species since 1970. Recovery efforts for the endangered Woundfin involve maintaining broodstock and refuge populations, as well as providing production from these stocks to repopulate wild populations in the Virgin River after restoration activities or catastrophic events. Southwestern Native Aquatic Resources and Recovery Center (SNARRC), located in Dexter, New Mexico, has maintained a refuge and broodstock population since the 1970s, with a goal of producing 20,000 Woundfin for annual stocking since the early 2000s.  The broodstock also serves as a refuge for Woundfin, providing redundancy in case of population collapse in the wild.

A salvage, broodstock, and culture plan was established by the Utah Division of Wildlife (UDWR) in 2000 to ensure conservation and management strategies of Woundfin (Hepworth et al. 2000). The broodstock plan suggested that the captive stock be periodically supplemented (every year if possible) with wild fish, as long as feasible, in order to ensure that natural gene frequencies were unaltered between wild and captive populations (Hepworth et al. 2000). Also, to counter the effects of genetic drift, a study in 2009 by Chen et al., recommended that approximately 300 randomly selected individuals be added to the refuge/broodstock every 2 years as long as removal of these fish does not adversely affect wild populations.

Initially, Woundfin from the Virgin River were brought to SNARRC in 1979 to establish a refuge population (Chen et al. 2009). However, no Woundfin collected before 1987 survived in captivity. The current stock is descended from 3,338 founders brought into the hatchery from 1987 to 1989. Between 2002 and 2004, 174 Woundfin were salvaged for broodstock when performing treatments to eradicate red-shiner between the Washington Fields and Johnson diversions. Additionally, 605 Woundfin were collected from seine hauls (n=165) below Palmer Ranch and near the Washington Fields Diversion on November 17, 2005 and were added to the broodstock.

Provide evidence about the nature of the problem and the need to address it. Identify the significance of the problem using a variety of data sources. For example, if a habitat restoration project is being proposed to benefit greater sage-grouse, describe the existing plant community characteristics that limit habitat value for greater sage-grouse and identify the changes needed for habitat improvement.

Provide an overall goal for the project and then provide clear, specific and measurable objectives (outcomes) to be accomplished by the proposed actions. If possible, tie to one or more of the public benefits UWRI is providing.

LOCATION: Justify the proposed location of this project over other areas, include publicly scrutinized planning/recovery documents that list this area as a priority, remote sensing modeling that show this area is a good candidate for restoration, wildlife migration information and other data that help justify this project's location.

TIMING: Justify why this project should be implemented at this time. For example, Is the project area at risk of crossing an ecological or other threshold wherein future restoration would become more difficult, cost prohibitive, or even impossible.

List management plans where this project will address an objective or strategy in the plan. Describe how the project area overlaps the objective or strategy in the plan and the relevance of the project to the successful implementation of those plans. It is best to provide this information in a list format with the description immediately following the plan objective or strategy.

If applicable, detail how the proposed project will significantly reduce the risk of fuel loading and/or continuity of hazardous fuels including the use of fire-wise species in re-seeding operations. Describe the value of any features being protected by reducing the risk of fire. Values may include; communities at risk, permanent infrastructure, municipal watersheds, campgrounds, critical wildlife habitat, etc. Include the size of the area where fuels are being reduced and the distance from the feature(s) at risk.

Describe how the project has the potential to improve water quality and/or increase water quantity, both over the short and long term. Address run-off, erosion, soil infiltration, and flooding, if applicable.

Description of efforts, both completed and planned, to bring the proposed action into compliance with any and all cultural resource, NEPA, ESA, etc. requirements. If compliance is not required enter "not applicable" and explain why not it is not required.

Describe the actions, activities, tasks to be implemented as part of the proposed project; how these activities will be carried out, equipment to be used, when, and by whom.

Describe plans to monitor for project success and achievement of stated objectives. Include details on type of monitoring (vegetation, wildlife, etc.), schedule, assignments and how the results of these monitoring efforts will be reported and/or uploaded to this project page. If needed, upload detailed plans in the "attachments" section.

List any and all partners (agencies, organizations, NGO's, private landowners) that support the proposal and/or have been contacted and included in the planning and design of the proposed project. Describe efforts to gather input and include these agencies, landowners, permitees, sportsman groups, researchers, etc. that may be interested/affected by the proposed project. Partners do not have to provide funding or in-kind services to a project to be listed.

Detail future methods or techniques (including administrative actions) that will be implemented to help in accomplishing the stated objectives and to insure the long term success/stability of the proposed project. This may include: post-treatment grazing rest and/or management plans/changes, wildlife herd/species management plan changes, ranch plans, conservation easements or other permanent protection plans, resource management plans, forest plans, etc.

Potential for the proposed action to improve quality or quantity of sustainable uses such as grazing, timber harvest, biomass utilization, recreation, etc. Grazing improvements may include actions to improve forage availability and/or distribution of livestock.