Chapter 3: Description of Alternatives

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Common Features and Objectives for All Action Alternatives COMMON FEATURES AND OBJECTIVES FOR ALL ACTION ALTERNATIVES Every action alternative addresses the same general habitat objectives for land habitat restaration, target riverflows, and steps to provide habitat benefits for pallid sturgeon. The alternatives differ in the emphasis they place on each objective, but each aims to provide significant improvements in habitat for the target species. These characteristics will serve as the initial definition and focus for creation ar restoration of habitat complexes and non-complex lands during the First Increment of the Program but may be changed as new information is developed as part of an adaptive management process (see Adaptive Management Plan, in this chapter). Two types of land and riverine habitat are planned for restoration and protection: habitat complexes and non-complex habitat. HABITAT COMPLEXES Habitat complexes along the Central Platte River would be created to meet the needs of the whooping cranes, least terns, and piping plovers, as described in chapter 2, "History of Habitat Use and Habitat Trends for the Target Species." Habitat complexes include wide and long areas of unobstructed channel with shallow depths, providing adequate roost security for whooping cranes and with unvegetated sandbars providing nesting habitat for terns and plovers. Habitat complexes also include wet meadow areas near the river far crane foraging, loafing, and courtship. Complexes also may include lands that, while not channel roost area or wet meadows, provide an important "buffer" from human disturbance (e.g., roads, dwellings). Characteristics for the components of habitat complexes are summarized from the Governance Committee's Land Plan 2 in table 3-1. Table 3-1.-Summary of Habitat Complex Guidelines (Governance Committee Program Document: Attachment 4: Land Plan, Table 1) Riverine Habitat Characteristics Location Platte River between Lexington and Chapman, Nebraska Channel area Approximately 2 miles long, 1,150 feet wide, and includes both sides of the river. Water depth A range of depths with approximately 40 percent of the channel area less than 0.7-foot deep during whooping crane migration periods. Wetted width 90 to 100 percent of channel area inundated during migration periods. Water velocity During migration seasons, velocity should be less than 4 miles per hour in shallow areas. Sandbars/channel morphology Nonpermanent sandbars and low, nonpermanent islands, high enough to provide dry sand during the tern/plover nesting season and free of vegetation that inhibits use by tem, plover, or crane. Prnximitv to wet Within 2 miles, but contiguous is prefened. 2 Governance Committee's Program Document is on the CD attached to this volume, or available on request from <http://www.platteriver.org>.