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24 <br />The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, acting under authority of a State law that <br />allows protection of instream flow for wildlife, has identified and will be requesting <br />protection of specific instream flows that will help maintain remaining- river roosting habitat <br />and adjacent wetland meadows. The Nebraska Department of Water Resources must issue <br />a water right permit for wildlife if existing instream flows are to be protected from future <br />diversion. Efforts are being made by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Nebraska Game and <br />Parks Commission, the Trust, and environmental groups, through a Federal Energy <br />Regulatory Commission power generation relicensing process, to secure the release of water <br />stored in Lake McConaughy into the Platte River. Such releases would supplement natural <br />flows, increasing the quantity and quality of whooping crane roosting habitat and helping <br />maintain wetland meadows. <br />The Service has been studying availability of suitable migration stopover habitat within the <br />United States (Stahlecker 1988, 1991, 1993) and this work should continue over the next <br />few years. <br />Wintering Grounds Research: Despite intensive studies of whooping cranes on the <br />wintering grounds by Allen in the late 1940's, some important questions remained <br />unanswered. More detailed information was needed on the food habits, on food availability <br />in relation to climatic conditions, on spatial requirements and territorial behavior in an <br />expanding population, and on the effects of increasing human activities in and around the <br />cranes' habitat. With more of this information available, better management planning and <br />evaluation would be possible. <br />A study of potential whooping crane food organisms and related physical factors was <br />conducted in 1963 and early 1964 by Bill Van Tries and Gordon Folzenlogen of the Service. <br />In November 1970, the NAS assigned David R. Blankinship to conduct research on <br />wintering whooping cranes at Aransas NWR and adjacent islands and peninsulas. Findings <br />on territorial, subadult flocks, adult -young relationships, feeding ecology, parasites, and <br />other aspects of wintering ecology have been published (Blankinship 1976, Forrester et al. <br />1978, Bishop and Blankinship 1982, Bishop 1984). <br />Hunt (1987) studied upland habitats at Aransas NWR in the early 1980's. Objectives were <br />to identify environmental conditions associated with the use of upland habitats by whooping <br />cranes and sandhill cranes, to determine the effects of refuge management practices on <br />upland habitat, and to determine the relative importance of food items consumed by cranes <br />in the uplands. Based on fecal analysis, foods utilized included blue crabs, clams (Tagelus <br />son.), snails (Melamous Coco =, acorns, and wolf berry. Whooping cranes used portions of <br />upland pastures which were open, close to the wetland edge, and away from sources of <br />human disturbance. Periodic upland burning increased the visual openness of the habitat, <br />oak stem density, and the availability of acorns (Hunt 1987). <br />The wintering territories of whooping cranes on the Texas coast place the birds in close <br />proximity to several human - induced disturbance factors. These factors include tour boats <br />with the purpose of watching cranes, 24 -hour boat and barge traffic along the GIWW, <br />recreation and commercial (including hunting, angling, crabbing, and oystering) traffic, and <br />aerial overflights. The extent to which whooping cranes are exposed to the above factors <br />varies among the different use localities because restrictions and practices differ in the <br />