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Brian L. Barels <br />Water Resources Manager <br />December 3, 1999 <br />Mr. Paul Tebbel <br />Chairman of the Technical Committee <br />Rowe Sanctuary - NAS <br />Route 2, Box 146 <br />Gibbon NE 68840 <br />RE: Integrated Monitoring and Research Component Comments <br />Dear Paul: <br />blbarel @nppd.com <br />(402) 563 -5335 / 5028 fax <br />The Draft Integrated Monitoring and Research Component (IMRC) describes the characteristics of <br />successful long term monitoring and research program and the concepts of adaptive management. In <br />addition, the IMRC lists protocols which will need to be developed to meet the monitoring and research <br />needs of the Proposed Program. However, the IMRC does not appear to evaluate Program goals. The <br />following are our comments and suggestions: <br />The IMRC is lacking monitoring or research of land and water management (program goals) that could <br />be used in the adaptive management approach in the future. Monitoring and research as presented in this <br />current draft is heavily weighted towards determining species habitat use and not if Program land <br />development and water management actions are meeting established goals and objectives. Emphasis <br />should be placed on monitoring and research protocols that will determine if the land and water made <br />available to the program will have the desired effect. <br />The IMRC in Section IV.B. indicates that monitoring and research of project specific effects needs to be <br />included in the proposals for each specific project. It is our opinion that the IMRC should address <br />monitoring and research of all land management activities. The monitoring and research should be <br />sufficient to determine if those activities, or which activities, best provided additional habitat for the <br />species and the species monitoring should determine if that increase in habitat truly had a beneficial <br />impact on the target species. <br />A monitoring and research program should also be implemented for EA management with the simple <br />objective of determining if Program water had the effects for which it was provided, and if that effect <br />provided a benefit to the target species. It is assumed that Program managed water will be released to <br />meet the target flows as defined by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Monitoring and research needs <br />to be developed to determine if the water management obtains positive results. Monitoring or more <br />