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DRAFT Whooping Crane ground survey protocol <br />I. INTRODUCTION <br />The States of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming and the Department of the Interior (DOI) <br />agreed to participate in a basin -wide cooperative program relating to four target species (interior <br />least tern, piping plover, whooping crane and pallid sturgeon) and their associated habitats in the <br />Cooperative Agreement for Implementing a Platte River Recovery Implementation Program <br />(Program). One of the primary purposes of the Program is to "implement certain aspects of the <br />FWS's recovery plans for the target species that relate to their associated habitats by providing <br />for the following: J) securing defined benefits for the target species and their associated habitats <br />to assist in their conservation and recovery through a basin -wide cooperative approach that can <br />be agreed to by the three states and DOI... ". The Program builds upon the July. 1, 1997 <br />Cooperative Agreement for Platte River Research and Other Efforts Relating to Endangered <br />Species Habitats Along the Central Platte River, Nebraska (July 1997 Cooperative Agreement). <br />Program implementation will follow a process of adaptive management to address areas of <br />scientific uncertainty. Monitoring is an integral part of the adaptive management process. The <br />adaptive management approach will allow for efficient modification of management actions in <br />response to new and changing environmental conditions. The Program's Technical Committee <br />will monitor and document, relative to the habitat and species conditions that existed as of the <br />effective date of the Cooperative Agreement, habitat and species responses to habitat <br />improvement activities. With scientific advisory assistance, the Technical Committee will <br />review monitoring results and make recommendations to the Program's Governance Committee <br />regarding the effects of Program activities on whooping crane habitat use in the study area. The <br />Governance Committee, using the Technical Committee's input, will evaluate projects and the <br />overall Program to determine what, if any, changes are needed in the management. <br />This monitoring protocol will be used by the Technical Committee to gather information on <br />whooping crane habitat use in the study area. It is understood that regardless of survey method <br />not all cranes are certain of being detected during migration and therefore full implementation of <br />this or any other protocol will not represent complete use of the central Platte River valley. <br />Information from this protocol will be used to help evaluate the association of whooping crane <br />habitat use with the land and water management activities of the Program. <br />The National Wildlife Federation, working with the Nebraska Wildlife Federation, will be <br />funding and conducting a repeated ground survey for whooping cranes in the study area. The <br />Federation will follow a Technical Committee consensus protocol. The ground survey will <br />consist of volunteer observers driving predefined routes on a regular schedule while looking for <br />whooping cranes in all types of habitats. Sightings from these efforts will be included in the <br />opportunistic locates as described in the following protocol. <br />This monitoring protocol addresses several July 1997 Cooperative Agreement milestones: <br />R2 -1 A technical committee appointed by the Governance Committee will develop <br />protocols for and initiate habitat and species monitoring and research <br />March 12, 2001 Draft Protocol <br />