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<br />Proposal for Monitoring and Research Demonstration Project on Nebraska <br />Public Power District's Cottonwood Ranch Property <br />Submitted To: <br />Finance Committee <br />Governance Committee <br />STATUS OF PROJECT: New Project <br />LOCATION: Cottonwood Ranch Property, Platte River, Central Nebraska <br />INTRODUCTION <br />The Platte River Endangered Species Partnership (PRESP) is developing a proposed Program <br />that will undertake a number of management activities to modify both land and water to increase <br />or improve habitat for least terns, piping plovers, and whooping cranes. The proposed Program <br />will test the assumption that it is possible to improve pallid sturgeon habitat in the lower Platte <br />River through flow management in the central Platte River as well as identify information gaps <br />related to pallid sturgeon. The proposed Program will also help prevent the need to list additional <br />species. Adaptive management strategies will be used to insure that program activities perform <br />as expected. This demonstration project focuses on monitoring management activities initiated <br />on Cottonwood Ranch and will assist in protocol development needed for monitoring. <br />This proposal is comprised of three sections. The first section briefly describes the management <br />activities to be funded and conducted by Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) on their <br />Cottonwood Ranch Property. The second section is a proposed demonstration project that <br />focuses on monitoring the management activities initiated on Cottonwood Ranch and will assist <br />in protocol development needed for monitoring. The third section proposes a demonstration <br />project that focuses on research and monitorin? of management activities conducted on <br />Cottonwood Ranch. The third section will also assist in protocol development needed for <br />monitoring, and will provide crucial evaluation of management activities that potentially will be <br />widely used within the program. Section two (monitoring) as proposed is wholly funded by the <br />Cooperative Agreement and proposed Program. Section three (monitoring and research) as <br />proposed is funded jointly by the Cooperative Agreemendproposed Program and the USGS. <br />Sections 2 and 3 outline several conceptual ideas for monitoring and research. The numerous <br />technical details of either of these projects will require further work if either is funded. For <br />example, the exact transect placement for monitoring is not known at this time but will be <br />worked through during protocol development in the Technical Committee. Another example is <br />the conceptual design in section 3. Currently the design looks at a paired channel, one as a <br />reference and the other as a treatment. The design may be changed to use an upstream reference <br />channel location and a downstream treatment channel. Regardless of the details, it is assumed <br />that if either proposal is funded the actual project will be accomplished within the respective <br />estimated budgets. <br />Page 1 of 15