THE PROPOSED PLATTE RIVER PROGRAM, AN EFFORT AT COLLABORATIVE CONSERVATION OF HABITAT FOR ENDANGERED SPECIES

On July 1, 1997 the states of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming and the Department of the Interior (DOI) (“the parties”) entered into the Cooperative Agreement for Platte River Research and Other Efforts Relating to Endangered Species Habitats Along the Central Platte River, Nebraska (Cooperative Agreement). As part of the Cooperative Agreement, the parties agreed to implement a Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Program) that builds on the Cooperative Agreement, resulting in potential improvements in habitat for four target species (interior least tern (Sterna antillarum), whooping crane (Grus americana), piping plover (Charadrius melodus), and pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus)) listed as threatened or endangered. The Program proposes to improve habitat for the target species by reducing shortages to target flows estimated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for the Platte River in central Nebraska, and the protection and restoration of habitat, primarily in complexes along the river. The proposed Program is to be implemented incrementally with the First Increment covering 13 years. The proposed Program will use adaptive management, supported by an integrated monitoring and research effort to accomplish habitat goals for the target species. I describe the issues that led to the Cooperative Agreement and briefly describe the proposed Program, as of the date of the conference. My description will include the proposed approaches to protection and restoration of habitat for the target species, including in channel and out of channel habitat and the investigation of those approaches. I will also describe the monitoring and research plan and describe the different scales of monitoring, research, and adaptive management.