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Colorado River Programs in FY 1999-2000. These funds would pay for actions by the Colorado Division of Wildlife to ensure that non-native fish do not continue to compete with the native endangered fish. Actions include removing non-native fish from floodplain ponds, providing incentives for landowners to manage ponds on private property for native species, and screening outlet works or building berms to ensure that warm-water non-natives left in ponds do not escape to the river system to compete with the native species. 2. On July 1, 1997, Governor Romer, Governor Ben Nelson (NB), Governor Jim Geringer (WY), and Secretary of the Interior Babbitt signed the Platte River Basin Cooperative Endangered Species Agreement. The Cooperative Agreement describes a long-term habitat restoration program and commits the parties to a series of activities that provide the foundation from which to launch the program. These activities include a three-year evaluation of the proposed program as required by the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Cooperative Agreement also provides a predictable ESA compliance mechanism for water facilities in the Platte River basin while NEPA compliance on the long-term program proceeds. Once NEPA compliance is complete, the Cooperative Agreement would be replaced by a subsequent agreement to implement the actions described in the Cooperative Agreement. These actions include buying and protecting land in Nebraska to provide habitat for the target species - the whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tem, and pallid sturgeon. They also include regulating Platte River flows to reduce flow shortages at Grand Island Nebraska by an average of 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet per year. Water users, environmentalists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, and the states of Nebraska, Wyoming and Colorado are engaged in this effort. Key Issues: The Cooperative Agreement identifies many of the actions the parties will take to offset the effects to endangered species habitat in Nebraska of existing and new water development in the Platte River Basin. However, some actions have not yet been fully defined. For example, the parties have agreed to protect 10,000 acres of land to provide habitat for the target species over a 13 to 16 year period. But, the parties have not agreed on which lands to buy or whether the willing-seller transactions will be in fee or less than fee, and on how the lands will be managed. The parties have also agreed to develop projects capable of re-regulating an annual average of 130,000 to 150,00 acre-feet of Platte River flows from times when they are less biologically beneficial to times when they are more helpful to the target species. However, the Cooperative Agreement only lists projects capable of re- regulating 70,000 acre-feet on average each year, leaving the parties with the need to identify water conservation and water supply projects capable of re-regulating an additional 60,000 - 80,000 acre-feet of flows per year. Work is on-going to resolve these issues so capital expenditures can begin upon the completion of the NEPA process in 2000. Anticipated Long-term Costs: The Platte River Basin effort is expected to cost about $75 million in 1997 dollars over a 13 to 16.year period to address the impacts Native Species Conservation Trust Fund Page 7 Annual Report to the Colorado General Assembly Colorado Department of Natural Resources