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process can proceed. In addition, it was interpreted that a water user must sign a recovery agreement with both the State of Wyoming and the FWS. This was never the case. Attachment III has been revised to clarify that when a water user must provide mitigation for coverage under the plan and program, the water user and the State of Wyoming will negotiate a Wyoming Recovery Agreement, which will be submitted to the federal action agency and FWS for review prior to execution. This eliminates the need for a recovery agreement between the water user and the FWS. Mark Butler agreed with the proposed changes. Mike Purcell will send a revised Depletions Plan including redline and clean versions for review. If parties have comments they should be sent to Mike Purcell. Concern was raised that this topic was not brought forward as a full action item with documentation before the meeting. Program responsibilities regarding Cottonwood Ranch Brian Barels provided an overview of the Cottonwood Ranch development and enhancement efforts. There is a 6-phased plan that was approved by FERC after review and approval by the Cottonwood Ranch Management Oversight Committee. The FERC license agreement provides that once the Program begins, the Program becomes responsible for costs of previous development and management as well as future efforts. It is understood that the Program does not have federal authorization, and therefore cannot fund management/maintenance actions at this time. Brian explained that NPPD is willing to move forward with the 2007 portion of the development plan and conduct the maintenance activities with the understanding that NPPD will be reimbursed. The existing agreement also provides for reimbursement for the work through 2006. At the time reimbursement is requested, NPPD will provide a detailed accounting for all work done on Cottonwood Ranch as provided for by the FERC License Agreement. Brian noted that NPPD is still operating within the original cap of $1.3 M in 1997 dollars. The action items approved by the GC were: 1) reimburse NPPD for wark through 2006, approximately $800K, and 2) reimburse costs for 2007 maintenance activities ($75K) and improvements (budget to be provided). The expectation is that NPPD will provide invoices with supporting materials and will be reimbursed within 1 year of federal authorization. It was noted that there may be a need for a more formal agreement with NPPD at some point on exactly what the Program's rights are in regards to Cottonwood Ranch, as identified in the Land Plan. NPPD will draft this agreement for the GC to consider when appropriate. In addition, the GC appointed the Executive Director to sit on the Oversight Committee. Districts Monitoring Brian Barels reviewed the Districts monitoring efforts that they have been conducting since the licenses were provided. According to the licenses, the biological monitoring plan needs to be coordinated with the Program through consultation with GC within 6-months of Program initiation. Brian recommended that the Executive Director be appointed to the Monitoring Oversight Committee (different than the oversight committee identified above), to provide necessary coordination with the monitaring plan. GC appointed the Executive Director to the Monitoring Oversight Committee. Brian noted that if inembers of the GC have comments on the current monitoring plan that they can be sent directly to him, but in the future the coordination will be with the Executive Director. Page 2 of 4