Pallid2010

• Description: Platte River Endangered Species Partnership ‎(aka Platte River Cooperative Agreement [CA]; aka Platte River Recovery Implementation Program [PRRIP])‎ Technical Advisory Committee ‎(TAC)‎ Meeting Agendas, Budgets, Protocols, Notes, etc. 2009-10
• State: CO
• State: WY
• State: NE
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 5/27/2010
• Author: Platte River Endangered Species Partnership
• Title: Technical Advisory Committee ‎(TAC)‎ Meeting Items, etc. 2009-2010
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Meeting

PRRIP — ED OFFICE FINAL 05127/2010
1 PLATTE RIVER RECOVERY IMPLEMENTATION PROGRAM
2 Year Four (2010) Target Species Assessment — Pallid Sturgeon
4 Purpose
5 As requested by the Governance Committee (GC), the Executive Director's Office (ED Office)
6 prepared this assessment of Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Program or PRRIP)
7 activities to date regarding pallid sturgeon (Scaphirhynchus albus), a Program target species.
8 This assessment is presented in the context of implementation of the Adaptive Management Plan
9 (AMP), which provides the scientific framework for the Program. The assessment includes an
10 evaluation of key priority hypotheses, progress on specific pallid sturgeon tasks identified in the
11 Integrated Monitoring and Research Plan (IMRP), and a discussion of important outstanding
12 technical and policy issues.
13
14 This assessment is provided to the GC in an effort to convey science learning thus far to assist
15 with management and policy decision - making regarding this target species.
16
17 Background
18 The Program's overall long -term goal is to improve and maintain the associated habitats, which
19 includes:
20
21 "...3) testing the assumption that managing flow in the central Platte River also improves
22 the pallid sturgeon's lower Platte River habitat." (Final Program Document, 2006)
23
24 For the purposes of the Program, lower Platte associated habitat is the reach between the Elkhorn
25 River and Missouri River confluences, approximately a 40 -mile (64 -km) stretch. The
26 assumption reflected in the long -term goal relates to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's belief
27 that existing water - related activities (those that depend on the Program for Endangered Species
28 Act compliance) have at times reduced the quantity or rate of flow in the lower Platte between
29 February and July and that further alterations (new depletions) to discharge patterns or channel
30 morphology will degrade existing pallid sturgeon habitat in the lower Platte and thus impede
31 recovery efforts.
32
33 As detailed in the AMP, Program participants developed a conceptual ecological model (CEM)
34 as a graphical representation of the hypothesized understanding of the lower Platte River
35 associated habitat relative to pallid sturgeon (Figure 1). The CEM includes inputs and
36 management actions (some of which are predominantly outside the control of the Program) as
37 well as a framework of "processes --+ response --* indicators" that led to the development of
38 several priority hypotheses related to pallid sturgeon. As with other Program target species,
39 those priority hypotheses are to be assessed against the pallid sturgeon management objective #3
40 that states:
41
42 "Avoid adverse impacts from Program actions on pallid sturgeon populations" (Adaptive
43 Management Plan, 2006)
PRRIP Pallid Sturgeon Assessment Page 1 of 8