Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River

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Introduction those and other criticisms of USFWS's scientific work and has considered them with agency replies. The complex nature of water - resource development and endangered- species management in the Platte River Basin became an increasingly difficult issue beginning in 1994 when six water - related projects in the Colorado Front Range became the subject of negotiations between project proponents and USFWS. The settlement of the negotiations included permission for the projects to continue and support for a recovery effort that encompassed areas downstream along the Platte River. During the 1990s, recovery efforts included work by the Whooping Crane Trust and the National Audubon Society to modify habitat in the river corridor. In recognition of the complicated policy issues involving Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, and the federal government (represented by DOI agencies, such as USFWS and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, USBR), a new cooperative agreement was created among these entities. On July 1, 1997, the governors of the three states and the secretary of the interior signed a cooperative agreement defining a Central Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (DOI 1997). The agreement established a 10- member Governance Committee whose members represented the full array of participants and were charged with designing and implementing the recovery program. The success of the recovery program depends on a sound understanding of the relationships among water flows, channels, control structures, vegetation, and wildlife and on decisions by the Governance Committee that are founded on the scientific explanations of those relationships. Discussions among the Governance Committee members and the various publics they represent revealed important questions about the scientific underpinnings of recovery plans for the species in question and of the explanations of environmental changes along the river that have affected wildlife habitat. Committee Charge and Response In January 2003, DOI, with the concurrence of and input from the Governance Committee, asked the National Academies to direct its investigative arm, the National Research Council, to assess the science underlying many of the decisions reached by agencies of the federal government related to endangered and threatened species in the Platte River Basin. Specifically, the Governance Committee asked for an evaluation of the habitat requirements of the listed species of the central and lower Platte River and for an evaluation of the scientific basis of USFWS's instream -flow recommendations and habitat - suitability guidelines and of DOI's conclusions about the relationships among sediment movement, hydrologic flow, vegetation, and channel morphology. See Boxes 1 -1 and 1 -2 for details of the charge to the committee and Box 1 -3 for the committee's definition of terms included in the statement of task. In early 2003, the Research Council formed the Committee on Endangered and Threatened Species in the Platte River Basin, a panel of 13 members (later expanded to 14) that included a specialist for each listed species in the charge; two ecologists; engineers specializing in hydraulics, hydrology, and civil - environmental topics; a geomorphologist; a geographer; legal, economic, and water - policy experts; and a farmer (see Appendix A for details). The committee held two public meetings in Nebraska, one in Kearney and the other in Grand Island, to collect information, meet with researchers and decision - makers, and accept testimony from the public. The meetings included an extensive flight over the Platte River from Lake McConaughy to Chapman and visits to the Rowe Sanctuary and Shelton Cottonwood • 21