Platte River Recovery Implementation Partnership Related Brochures and Maps

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The best approach to addressing the ESA • Establishing an environmental water issues in the Central Platte region is via a account in Lake McConaughy in basinwide cooperative effort to improve and Nebraska. maintain habitat for the target species. The alternative is that each water project must • Developing a groundwater recharge undergo individual review and develop and river re-regulation project near separate measures to protect the species. Tamarack State Wildlife Area in Colorado. Program Objectives As proposed in a Cooperative Agreement - These three actions are expected to reduce signed by three governors and the Secretary of shortages by approximately 70,000 acre- the Interior in July 1997, the partnership is feet of water. A basinwide "water action developing a program to: plan"will identify means for further enhancing flow conditions to provide an ✓ Improve flow conditions in the Central additional 60,000 acre-foot reduction in Platte habitat area. The USFWS has identified flow shortages. This plan should be flow levels it believes are necessary to provide completed in the next six months. adequate habitat for the species. Existing Colorado is urging reliance upon cost flows fall short of these targets. effective measures and avoid the loss of /Improve habitat through managing, leasing, any Colorado water supply. or acquiring approximately 29,000 acres of suitable habitat between Lexington and Land Committee Activities Chapman, Nebraska. Besides improving flows for the species, a /Mitigate or offset any impacts on these land committee is working on ways to habitat improvements that might result from protect or restore 10,000 acres of habitat new water-related activities in the basin. between Lexington and Chapman, Water Action Plan Nebraska. The Nebraska Public Power District's Cottonwood Ranch(2,650 acres) The first phase of the proposed Program (10- contributes to that goal. In later phases of 13 years) would reduce shortages to the the proposed Program, the holdings of the current target flows by an average of 130,000 Platte River Whooping Crane Maintenance to 150,000 acre-feet per year by: Trust,the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission,the Nature Conservancy, and • Restoring the storage capacity of the Audubon Society, totaling Pathfinder Reservoir in Wyoming. approximately 9,000 acres of habitat, will be included toward the long-term goal of 29,000 acres. Answers to Common Questions about the Partnership • The Cooperative Agreement is a three-year agreement signed by the governors of Wyoming, Colorado and Nebraska, and by the Secretary of the Interior to address the needs of four threatened or endangered species using the central Platte River region by developing and implementing a Recovery Implementation Program. • The Cooperative Agreement proposes a framework for a long-term Recovery Implementation Program to aid endangered species. During the Cooperative Agreement,the details of the program are being filled in and the federal government is doing formal environmental reviews. • The Bureau of Reclamation and the USFWS are preparing an EIS that examines the effects of the proposed Program and other alternatives. The EIS will recommend a "preferred alternative"to the