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Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Governance Committee Minutes Ramada Inn, Kearney, Nebraska April 10-11, 2007 Minutes - The Governance Committee (GC) requested that a list of ineeting attendees be provided with the minutes. February minutes were approved as written. Updates Program Legislation - Ted Kowalski provided the update. Hearings in both the House and Senate are hoped for in the next month or two. The groups are looking to do a streamlined hearing approach with one federal representative and another representative for the rest of the GC for the Senate hearings. The GC agreed that Mike Purcell should represent them as GC Chair. It was noted that more people can attend the House hearings if desired and written testimony will be accepted. Whooping Crane Monitoring - Clayton Derby reported that AIM Environmental was selected as the contractor and has been conducting surveys since mid-March. Surveys will continue until the end of April. Whooping cranes have been in the area every day of the surveys so far. North Platte Channel Restoration and Enhancement Project - Mike Purcell reported that three proposals were received and reviewed by the subgroup - SEH, Parsons, and JF Sato. The selection committee approved the Executive Director's office (EDO) to negotiate with SEH on two issues, cultural resources and Nebraska registered surveyor, with latitude of their proposed contract amount plus 10%. It was reported that the parties have reached a verbal agreement on the issues and budget. USFS South Platte Vegetation Management report - Colorado reported that the USFS will be participating in a workshop with Colorado on forest management and the GC will be invited. Comments from the workshop will be made public for the purpose of providing education on the topic. Committee Memberships - The EDO reviewed committee memberships and noted that some parties have not provided members. A current list will be circulated to the GC. • Program Web Site - Dale Strickland reported that his office as been working with the BOR on getting the Program web site updated. The Program may want to host its own web site in the future. The GC asked that materials distributed before the meeting be posted on the web site for easier download and for review by various constituents. The EDO will look into having an ftp site for this purpose. Wyoming Depletions Plan - Mike Purcell explained that some issues have been identified related to the discretionary templates in Attachment III to the plan. They have been erroneously interpreted to suggest that a water user must execute recovery agreements even though the water user does not need to provide mitigation for coverage by the plan and program. When no mitigation is required, the Wyoming State Coordinator will simply write to the federal action agency and FWS describing the action and explaining why a particular action does not require mitigation for coverage. If the federal action agency and FWS agree, the simplified consultation Page 1 of 4