Partial ESA Consultations Involving Platte Depletions Draft

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ESA Consultations Involving Platte River Depletions: Information for Project Proponents in Colarado on the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain-Prairie Region January 4, 2007 Draft Purpose The purpose of this document is to provide general guidance to water-related project proponents in Colorado regarding Endangered Species Act (ESA) consultations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) on the effects of water-related activities in the Platte River Basin. I History Since 1978, the Service has consistently found through formal Section 7 consultations witli Federal agencies that actions resulting in depletions to flows in the Platte River systein are likely to jeopardize the continued existence of one or more federally-listed threatened or endangered species and adversely modify critical habitat. The four federally-listed species that have been the focus of recovery efforts (the "target species") are the whooping crane (Grus americczncc), the northern Great Plains population of the piping plover (Charadrius melodus), the interior least tern (Sternula antillarum), and the pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus). In 2006, a landmark agreement was signed between the governors of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior to implement a basin-wide Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Program). The purpose of this Program is to provide ESA compliance for water users in the Platte River basin upstream of the Loup River confluence in Nebraska for effects on the target species and critical habitat, while managing certain land and water resources to provide benefits for those species. This Program went into effect on January 1, 2007.2 This Program will continue indefinitely - i. e., for as long as this recovery effort is determined to be necessary and as long as the signatories agree to continue participating in tlle Program. Through this Program, the states and the federal government will provide land, water, and scientific monitoring and research to evaluate Program benefits for the target species. The effectiveness of various Program actions will be re-evaluated ' Disclaimer•: This document provides general guidance only; in case of disagreement or ambiguity with respect to Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Agreement documents or Fish and Wildlife Service policies, those Program documents and Service policies take precedence over statements made in this document. 2 The complete set of documents associated with this Program are available on [Web page].