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Area resident Craig Conrad said he plans on celebrating failure -- the failure of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife plan to manage endangered fish and the Yampa River Basin.

"They are robbing us," Conrad said of the federal agency at a meeting Wednesday. "They are robbing our children."

The meeting, which was held to present the management plan, was a culmination of several years' work with area residents and public comments gathered at meetings in 2001.

The objective of the plan, according to Jerry Roehm, an instream coordinator for the Fish and Wildlife Service, is to get four endangered fish species to a point where they can reproduce enough to not have to be stocked.

The four species are the Colorado pikeminnow, the razorback sucker, the humpback chub and the bonytail.

The major threat to these fish is from predator fish that include the pike, small-mouth bass and channel catfish.

The plan calls for either relocating the predator fish to area reservoirs or destroying them.

Conrad said many residents of Craig oppose the plan, which involves releasing water from Elkhead Reservoir to maintain the water level on the Yampa River during times when the river is low.

"That river was becoming a world class pike and small-mouth bass river and now I feel like it's being destroyed," Conrad said. "It makes me sick."

The next step for Roehm and the plan is to solicit comments on the plan until Aug. 31. What happens after that will depend on the extent of the comments and commencement of the plan could occur as early as one month after the comments have been received.

"We went through a long process (to decide how to get water for the river)," Roehm said. "We started with the Elkhead and then eventually came back to it."

A major concern brought up was whether the Yampa River could be placed under the state's administration if water released from Elkhead did not reach the gauge at Maybell where they are measuring the water flow for the management plan.

"Certainly if we are releasing water and it is not reaching the gauge, then we would want to look at that," Roehm said. "But I think that Bob (Plask, from the river conservancy board) would just go and ask people not to take as much in their ditches and they would do that. It is better than going under strict administration."

Other concerns voiced over the plan were the possible disturbance of unknown species evolving in the Yampa River, where the water from Elkhead Reservoir would go when they drain it and how long the reservoir would be closed to fishing.

"You're closing our reservoir and you are taking all of the fish from our rivers, where are we going to fish?" asked Conrad.

Roehm said he sympathizes with the impact that closing the reservoir for two years will have on the Craig economy and residents but it is something that needs to happen.

Steamboat Lake, which has been providing the water to the Yampa River, is much farther away, said Roehm, and the Elkhead Reservoir, once it is enlarged, will be a more feasible source.

"We are just another water user," Roehm said of the Fish and Wildlife Service. "But our water stays in the river."

The meeting ended with many of those in attendance feeling frustrated and ignored.

"They (people in Craig) voice their opinion from their heart and you guys just blow them off," Conrad said of why many residents don't feel like attending the meetings will make any difference.

Liz King is an intern with the Craig Daily Press. She can be reached at s824-7031 or eking@craigdailypress.com.