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Chapter I <br />Purpose of and Need for Action <br />INTRODUCTION <br />The U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) has prepared this Draft Environmental Impact <br />Statement (DEIS) to assess the environmental consequences of the first increment (13 years) of a <br />proposed Recovery Implementation Program' (Program) to benefit four threatened and endangered <br />species and their habitat in and along the Platte River in Nebraska (the four "target species "). The four <br />target species are the whooping crane, the interior least tern, the piping plover, and the pallid sturgeon. <br />This analysis is carried out to meet requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and <br />the Endangered Species Act (ESA). <br />In 1997, the States of Colorado, Nebraska, and Wyoming and Interior signed a Cooperative Agreement <br />for Platte River Research and Other Efforts Relating to Endangered Species Habitats Along the Central <br />Platte River, Nebraska (Cooperative Agreement).2 In this agreement, the signatories agreed to pursue a <br />Basinwide, cooperative effort to improve and maintain habitat for the target species using the Platte River <br />in Nebraska. The Program is the proposed Federal action analyzed in this DEIS. <br />The Program, when implemented, is intended to provide compliance with the ESA for certain existing <br />water projects and water uses in the Platte River Basin (Basin) for the target species, as well as for certain <br />future water uses during the first increment of 13 years' (see the attachment, The No Action Alternative, <br />table 3, for a listing of water projects likely to use the Program to provide compliance for the effects of <br />their historic and future water uses on the target species in Nebraska). <br />'A Recovery Implementation Program is a set of actions to address aspects of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's <br />recovery plan for a threatened or endangered species. A Recovery Implementation Program aims to help recover the species, <br />while not necessarily addressing all threats to a species throughout its range. <br />'Available at <www.nlatterivenom> or from the Office of the Executive Director, Governance Committee (see <br />"Cover Sheet"). <br />'The participants in the proposed Program selected 13 years as the expected duration in order to allow sufficient time to <br />accomplish the actions proposed and enable initial monitoring of environmental effects. <br />December 2003 <br />