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• Partial observability: uncertainty about resource status, inability to see the system. . <br />Monitoring and research protocols developed as part of the IMRP and during the Program need <br />to consider these sources of uncertainty and attempt to reduce or eliminate them. <br />An adaptive management program should document the assumptions and objectives of <br />management and provide a framework for conflict management. Adaptive management should <br />also account for the dynamic nature of resources and provide the opportunity for effective and <br />efficient conservation of resources through time. Management becomes adaptive when <br />uncertainty is recognized, is measured, and is reduced through informed decision - making. <br />III.A. Adaptive Management and the Program <br />Platte River Program Adaptive Management (Program Adaptive Management) includes changes <br />based on a series of scientifically driven actions that use monitoring and research results to test <br />predictions and assumptions and uses the resulting information to improve those predictions and <br />assumptions (i.e., the technical definition of adaptive management) or on new information or <br />other types of information or experience. The long -term goal of the Program is: <br />• Improve and maintain migrational habitat for whooping cranes and reproductive <br />habitat for least terns and piping plovers <br />• Reduce the likelihood of future listings of other species found in this area <br />• Test the assumption that it is possible to improve habitat for the pallid sturgeon by <br />managing flow in the central Platte River that may also affect the pallid sturgeon's <br />lower Platte River habitat. <br />The Program's approach to target flow reduction and the protection and restoration of land are <br />described in the WAP and LAP, respectively. These plans are subject to adaptive management. <br />Adaptive management may occur at two levels within the First Increment of the Program. At the <br />associated habitat (system) level, the effectiveness of the Program's First Increment will be <br />evaluated and decisions will be made regarding milestones, goals, and objectives for the second <br />increment. The system level adaptive management will most likely occur at the end of the First <br />Increment (Figure 1) and incorporate information from all monitoring and research and other <br />knowledge learned during the First Increment. At the Program lands and project levels, the <br />effectiveness of management to improve habitat for target species and reduce flow shortages will <br />be determined leading to decisions regarding future management activities within the First <br />Increment. Program lands and management area level adaptive management may occur on an <br />annual basis (or at least several times during the First Increment) (Figure 1). The Governance <br />Committee will periodically evaluate Program activities and the criteria that guide such Program <br />activities. Evaluations will: (1) assess whether the Program activity being examined is working <br />as originally envisioned; (2) recommend modification if necessary; (3) determine whether there <br />are other or better uses for the resources committed to the activity; and (4) assess whether <br />success or failure could be determined by monitoring over the time period evaluated. Program <br />level adaptive management will be used to modify, if necessary, existing land and water <br />H., <br />