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CHAPTER TWO: <br />CHANGE ON THE RIVER AND THREAT TO SPECIES <br />"While I know the standard claim is the Yosemite, Niagara Falls, the Upper <br />Yellowstone and the like, offered the great.est natural shows, I am not so sure but <br />the prairies and plains, while less stunning at first light, last longer, fill the esthetic <br />sense fuller, precede all the rest, and make North America's characteristic <br />landscape" <br />(Whi.tman 1982, p. 864) <br />The waters of the Platte River Basin are some of the most intensively exploited on the <br />planet. By the time the South Platte River meets the North to form the main stem, both tributaries <br />have been harnessed repeatedly to the utilitarian needs of industrial agriculture, urban life, and <br />recreation, a pattern sustained across Nebraska. H[ydrologists estimate that in some stretches the <br />waters are used an average of eight times as diverl;ed water returns to the river for re-use by <br />agriculture, urban treatment plants, groundwater u.se and re-charge (Ring 1999). People and other <br />living things are fundamentally dependent upon rriultiple re-uses of repeated return flows. <br />Agriculturally, these streams supply surface water and groundwater irrigation to over two million <br />acres of land in the three states. Human engineering of Platte basin waters for these multiple <br />uses has exacted a high toll on the river and associated riparian ecosystems. <br />Platte River Basin <br />Wyoming <br />Nelbraska <br />Petlduider <br />Seminoe R <br />Sinclair <br />? N River <br />I <br />Lake McConeuOhY <br />Northgate Not to Scale <br /> <br />? Grand <br />Lexington Island <br />liulesburg Overton <br />I <br />? <br />? Critica/ Habitat <br />I <br />t----------- <br />I <br />? Kansas <br />1 <br />i <br />Figure 2 The Platte River Basin <br />Sarth Platte <br />iy River <br />Balzac: <br />Coloradlo <br />6