Laserfiche WebLink
? <br /> <br />The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), through the Secretary of the Interior, is <br />responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act. In carrying out its responsibilities, the Service is responsible for the protection and recovery of threatened and endangered species ' <br />and their associated habitat. <br />Representatives of non-Federal water resource development organizations and conservation <br />organizations participated in the process. The water resource organizations participate.ci in a <br />search for a practical and meaningful program to provide managed habitat critical to meet the <br />recovery goals of the threatened and endangered species in a manner that does not disrupt state <br />water rights systems, interstate compact, and court decrees that apportion and control the use <br />Platte River water among the: States. The conservation organizations were interested both in <br />assuring preservation of the threatened and endangered species and their habitat, and assuring <br />that habitat recovery would be implemented in an effective and prompt manner. <br />All of these interests participated extensively in the development of this program. Each is <br />committed to the successful implementation of a program that will provide habitat consistent with <br />the recovery goals of the threatened and endangered species, consistent with Federal law and a11 <br />applicable State laws and systems for water resource development and use. <br />This document provides the framework upon which quantity and quality of habitat to be <br />acquired, maintained, and protected to meet the habitat recovery goals specified for threatenerl <br />and endangered species within the central Platte River Basin in Nebraska, is to be based and the <br />steps that are to be implemented as part of a habitat conservation program. <br />1.3 BACKGROUND <br />The Platte River Basin extends from the mouth to the headwaters of the South and North Platte <br />Rivers. This drainage area includes about 85,000 square miles. Both tributaries originate at <br />about 14,000 feet (mean sea level) in the Rocky Mountains. The ma.instem Platte River, from <br />3