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Draft R3 -1 Document <br />March 6, 2000 <br />Introduction <br />The purpose of this document is to fulfill requirements of Milestone R3 -1, identified in <br />Attachment I to the "Cooperative Agreement for Platte River Research and Other Efforts <br />Relating to Endangered Species Habitats Along the Central Platte River, Nebraska" (CA). The <br />R3 -1 milestone is defined in the document as follows: <br />"FWS [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service)] will develop procedures to determine <br />the means of ascertaining biological response of species and habitat to mitigation <br />measures, and the time frame required to measure such biological response." <br />Milestone R3 -1 is closely related to Milestones R2 -1 and RI-1. R2 -1 involves the development <br />of study protocols, including sampling strategy and frequency, data analysis, budget, etc., and is <br />currently being developed by the CA's Technical Committee (TC). R1 -1 is being developed by <br />the Service with recommendations by the TC, and involves development of the habitat and <br />species baseline against which future comparisons can be made. The phrasing of the definition <br />of R3 -1 in the CA, however, does not clarify its purpose relative to the other milestones. The <br />Service interprets the definition to mean that the Service will develop procedures to evaluate: <br />a) the effect of mitigation measures (protection and management of water and land) <br />on the quantity, quality, and distribution of endangered species habitat; <br />b) the effect of mitigation measures on target species, and <br />C) the time frame necessary to measure habitat and species responses to those <br />measures. <br />Background <br />The "mitigation measures" referred to in the milestones of the CA comprise the actions carried <br />out pursuant to the "Proposed Platte River Recovery Implementation Program" outlined in <br />Attachment III of the CA (Program). Since July of 1997, when Secretary of Interior and the <br />Governors of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska signed the CA� representatives of the <br />signatories, various water users, and conservation organizations have been working cooperatively <br />to develop that Program. Those purposes of the Program pertinent to the evaluation of Program <br />effects include: <br />1. Secure defined benefits for four target listed species (interior least tern, piping plover, <br />whooping crane and pallid sturgeon) and their associated habitats to assist in their <br />conservation and recovery through a basin -wide cooperative approach. <br />2. Serve as the reasonable and prudent alternative to offset the effects of existing and new <br />water related activities in the Platte River Basin that, in the absence of such a Program, <br />