Chapter 1: Purpose and Need for Action

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Need for the Program NNEED FOR THE PROGRAM Various parts of the Platte River in Nebraska provide important habitat for the piping plover, whooping crane, interior least tern, and pallid sturgeon (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service [Service], 1978, 1988, 1990, 1993, and 1994; National Research Council, 2005). Reasons cited by the Service for the listing of each species as threatened or endangered are summarized in sidebar 1-1. Parts of the Platte Basin in Nebraska have been designated as critical habitat for the whooping crane as shown in figure 2-1 in chapter 2. Chapter 2 provides a detailed discussion of the development of water projects on the Platte River over the last 150 years which provide water for agricultural, municipal, and industrial activities, and how these projects, as well as other activities, have diminished river and related habitat for the target species. As described later in this chapter, Federal agencies are responsible under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) for ensuring that their actions, or the actions for which they provide funding or permits, do not likely jeopardize the continued existence of endangered species or adversely modify or destroy designated critical habitat. The attachment, "History of ESA Consultations on Platte River Target Species," provides a detailed history of the ESA consultations carried out between various Federal agencies and the Service regarding the effects of water projects and other water activities in the Platte Basin on the target species. Through these many consultations, the Service has determined that significant restoration of historic river and associated habitat in the Central and Lower Platte must be undertaken for these target species in order for current water projects in the Platte Basin to comply with the ESA. The Platte River Management Joint Study (Joint Study) (1989 and 1990) was initiated by Reclamation and the Service, in cooperation with the States of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska to develop a fish and wildlife management plan for the Platte River system in central Nebraska that would offset adverse project-related impacts on the whooping crane and the species' federally designated critical habitat. The study recommended that 29,000 acres of habitat for the whooping crane, interior least tern, and piping plover be protected and/or restared along the Central Platte River from Lexington to Chapman, Nebraska. The Service also determined objectives for the maintenance of riverflows in the Central Platte for the target species (see chapter 3, "First Increment Goals and Objectives;" Bowman, 1994; and Bowman and Carlsun, 1994). Currently, riverllows fall short of these flow targets by roughly 417,000 acre-feet on an average annual basis. Achieving these flow targets would require significant increases in riverflows, especially during the spring and summer'. Based on this information, Interior proposed a phased Program to address habitat restoration, with an initial Program increment that would achieve roughly one-third of these land and riverflow improvements (10,000 acres of habitat land; 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet of flow improvements), while allowing for monitoring and research during this increment to increase our understanding of the species' needs and the most effective ways to provide habitat improvenients. 'In 2003, Interior requested the National Academy of Sciences to review the science related to the target species use of the Platte River habitat and the Service's basis for development of the flow targets. The National Academy of Science's report, Platte River Endangered Species (National Reseazch Council, 2005), confirmed the importance of this habitat for recovery of the species and that the Service's development of flow targets was based on the best information available at the rime. Volume 2 provides the table of contents and conclusions from this report.