Laserfiche WebLink
constituents regarding the proposed designation of critical habitat for the piping <br />plover. <br />Aside from the obvious lack of scientific foundation for large parts of this <br />proposed designation and from the obvious procedural disregard for public input <br />in the process, which I will address shortly, there is already a far better means to <br />protect this bird and its habitat than by a critical habitat designation. This means is <br />the Cooperative Agreement. Here is a proposed program whose sole purpose is to <br />manage and protect piping plovers, least terns and whooping crane habitat and to <br />do it in a cooperative fashion using adaptive management techniques and relying <br />upon the collection of sound scientific data to guide those decisions. - This is a <br />process that is not an edict from some over - zealous bureaucrat but a process that <br />involves the states and the people who live along the river and work with these <br />birds regularly. This is the way to truly and effectively protect and manage these <br />birds. Using an alternative program is not without precedent. In the process of <br />this very proposed listing, several areas were excluded based upon the existence or <br />proposed existence of a management plan that adequately protected the birds and <br />their habitat. Perhaps the best-example of this is the exclusion of Lake <br />McConaughy from the proposed designation. This lake's shore, unlike the Central <br />Platte River, IS the nesting area for one of the largest concentrations of piping <br />plovers anywhere in North America. Yet because the owner of this lake, the <br />Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District, has a Federal Energy <br />Regulatory Commission license that requires them to have a shoreline <br />