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? whooping crane critical habitat from such activities including avoidance of any prohibited take <br />of such species. [Program, I.A.2 & footnote 2.]. The State of Colorado is in compliance with its <br />obligations under the Program. <br />For Federal actions and projects participating in the Program, the Platte River Recovery <br />Implementation Program Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and the 3une 16, 2006 <br />programmatic biological opinion (PBO) serve as the description of the environmental baseline <br />and environmental consequences for the effects of the Federal actions on the listed target species, <br />whooping crane critical habitat, and other listed species in the central and lower Platte River <br />addressed in the PBO. These documents are hereby incorporated into this Biological Assessment <br />by this reference. <br />Table II-1 of the PBO (pages 21-23) contains a list of species and critical habitat in the <br />action area, their status, and the Service's determination of the effects of the Federal action <br />analyzed in the PBO. The Service determined in the PBO that the continued operation of <br />existing and certain new water-related activities may adversely affect but would not likely <br />jeopardize the continued existence of the endangered whooping crane, interior least tern, and <br />pallid sturgeon, or the threatened northern Great Plains population of the piping plover. Further, <br />the Service found that the continued operation of existing and certain new water-related activities <br />may adversely affect but would not likely jeopardize the threatened bald eagle and western <br />prairie fringed orchid associated with the central and lower reaches of the Platte River in <br />, Nebraska, and was not likely to destroy or adversely modify designated critical habitat for the <br />? whooping crane. <br />The Service also determined that the PBO Federal Action would have no effect to the <br />endangered Eskimo curlew. There has not been a confirmed sighting since 1926 and this species <br />is believed to be extirpated in Nebraska. Lastly, the Service determined that the PBO Federal <br />Action, including the continued operation of existing and certain new water-related activities, <br />was not likely to adversely affect the endangered American burying beetle. <br />INSF,RT APPLICABLE LANGUAGE BELOW: <br />The above-described Project operations qualify as an "existing water related activity" <br />because they reflect the effects of a surface water or hydrologically connected groundwater <br />activity implemented on or before July 1,1997, within the intent and coverage of the Program. <br />[Program, I.A. footnote 3]. <br />-OR- <br />The above-described Project operations qualify as a"new water related activity" because <br />such operations constitute a new surface water or hydrologically connected groundwater activity <br />which may affect the quantity or timing of water reaching the associated habitats of the target <br />species implemented after July l, 1997. [Program, [.A. footnote 3]. The Project conforms to the <br />following criteria in Section H of Colorado's Plan for Future Depletions [Program, Attachment 5, <br />Section 9]: <br />?- 1. The Project is operated on behalf of Colorado water users; <br />October 24, 2006 Colorado Depletions Plan 15