WSP10509

• File Number: 8460.400
• Description: Platte River Basin-Platte River Basin Endangered Species Issues-Platte River Management Joint Study
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 10/1/1991
• Title: Management Alternative Work Group Status Report for Fiscal Year 1991-Draft 3
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Report/Study

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have been defined and nesting area needs for least terns and

piping plovers have been characterized. A suggested process or

mechanism to measure habitat changes that will be induced by
water and land management methods has been developed. The Work
Group believes this accomplishes this work task to the extent
practical until alternatives are further formulated. It has not
been possible to determine the amount of habitat or number of

habitat units, so habitat is not limiting recovery of threatened

and endangered species. Therefore, any water or land management

method considered for inclusion in an alternative is intended to

provide an increase in the present duration or quantity of

habitat to benefit threatened and endangered species.

However, as need dictates and new information becomes available,

habitat units may be re-evaluated.

To expand on Task 2, an assessment of habitat units resulting

from physical modification of channel conditions was performed.
To date, all of the physical modifications have been in the form
of simulating island Clearing and leveling and predicting habitat
based on a created 1150' wide unobstructed channel which would

provide unobstructed channel widths for whooping cranes on the

central Platte River. As water management alternatives are

developed, appropriate water management scenarios will be

assessed in combination with this land management method. The

Work Group is using instream flow study site 6 conditions to

simulate potential channel modifications. study site 6 is one of

17 study sites between Lexington and Chapman, NE which represents
present channel conditions. This site is located approximately 6

6