Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River

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• Summary piping plover. Members of the Governance Committee, the interests they represent, and others whose interests would be affected by any recovery program began to question the science supporting current management of the basin's listed species and sought an outside review of the science before the recovery program was made final. In 2003, the Department of the Interior (DOI) asked the National Academies to direct its investigative arm, the National Research Council, to evaluate independently the habitat requirements for the whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tern, and pallid sturgeon; to examine the scientific aspects of USFWS's instream flow recommendations and habitat suitability guidelines; and to assess the scientific support for the connections among the physical systems of the river related to the habitat as explained and modeled by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) (Box S -1). To help focus the National Research Council's task, the Governance Committee offered 10 specific questions related to science and policy for the four threatened and endangered species (Box S -2). The National Research Council formed the Committee on Endangered and Threatened Species in the Platte River Basin to address the charge described in Boxes S -I and S -2. The 14- member committee includes biologists specializing in the study of cranes, plovers, terns, and sturgeon; ecologists; engineers specializing in hydraulics, hydrology, and civil - environmental topics; a geomorphologist; a geographer; legal, economic, and water - policy experts; and a farmer. The committee met three times. Its first two meetings (held in Kearney and Grand Island, Nebraska) were open to the public and included invited presentations from researchers and decision - makers and a public- comment session. During those two meetings, the committee participated in an observational flight over the Platte River from Lake McConaughy to Chapman, BOX S -1 Statement of Task for the National Research Council A multidisciplinary committee will be established to evaluate the central Platte River habitat needs of the federally listed whooping crane, Northern Great Plains breeding population of the piping plover, interior least tern, and the Lower Platte River habitat needs of the pallid sturgeon. The committee will review the government's assessments of how current Platte River operations and resulting hydrogeomorphological and ecological habitat conditions affect the likelihood of survival of and /or limit the recovery of these species, and whether other Platte River habitats do or can provide the same values that are essential to the survival and /or recovery of these species. The committee will consider the scientific foundations for the current federal designation of central Platte habitat as "critical habitat" for the whooping crane and Northern Great Plains breeding population of the piping plover. The study will also examine the scientific aspects of (1) the processes and methods used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in developing its Central Platte River instream flow recommendations, taking the needs of the listed species into account (i.e., annual pulse flows, and peak flows); (2) characteristics described in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service habitat suitability guidelines for the central Platte River; and (3) the Department of Interior's conclusions about the interrelationships among sediment movement, hydrologic flow, vegetation, and channel morphology in the central Platte River. 3