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In 1978, Wallace Jobman (Wildlife Biologist, USFWS Area office, Pierre, SD) was designated as <br />Project Coordinator. From that time until present, a cover letter and form for reporting sightings was sent <br />prior to each migration, to federal and state wildlife offices throughout the flyway (MT, ND, SD, WY, NE, <br />CO, KS, OK, TX) to alert biologists of the potential for whooping crane stopovers in their region, to <br />encourage verification of sightings, and to report any unusual hazards along the migration route to the <br />Pierre Area office. <br />Realizing the need to obtain additional information about habitat requirements by whooping cranes, <br />the Whooping Crane Recovery Team met in February 1978 and developed more intensive guidelines for <br />reporting observations and evaluating habitat used by whooping cranes. The new guidelines requested <br />information about habitat variables that were suggested as important for evaluating whooping crane <br />habitat, as indicated by published literature and previous sightings reports. The form included 2 <br />components: guidelines for a written report (Appendix 1: Report Form 3a), and a sighting report <br />short-form (Appendix 1: Report Form 3b). <br />In 1978, the USFWS designated as critical habitat 9 sites in 6 states (Federal Report Vol. 43, No. <br />94, May 15): Cheyenne Bottoms State Wildlife Area (SWA), Kansas; Platte River bottoms between <br />Lexington and Dehman, Nebraska; Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), Oklahoma; Aransas <br />NWR, Texas; Monta Vista NWR, Colorado; Alamosa NWR, Colorado; Grays Lake NWR, Idaho; and <br />Bosque del Apache NWR, New Mexico. The latter 4 areas were associated with the experimental <br />cross - fostering study conducted during 1976 -85. All but 1 of these sites are under state or federal <br />protection; the Platte site remains largely under private ownership. As a result, the Platte became a priority <br />area for the USFWS. The Pierre Endangered Species Office was subsequently moved to Grand Island, <br />Nebraska, in August 1985. Wallace Jobman moved with the office and continued to coordinate the <br />monitoring project. <br />0 <br />