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Platte River Recovery Implementation Program History Description On July 1, 1997 the governors of Nebraska, The Platte River Recovery Implementation Colorado and Wyoming and the Secretary of the Program (Program) brings together the states, Interior entered into a Cooperative Agreement to federal government, water users and address the needs of four threatened or environmental groups to work collaboratively to endangered species using the Platte River Basin. improve and maintain the associated habitats for The named species were the endangered the designated species. whooping crane, least tern, pallid sturgeon and the threatened piping plover. The agreement The long-term goal of the Program is to improve proposed a framework for a long-term Recovery and maintain the associated habitats which Implementation Program to aid these species. includes: 1) improving and maintaining Initially, the agreement was for three years to migrational habitat for whooping cranes and develop a basin-wide cooperative program. reproductive habitat for least terns and piping However, negotiations regarding the details of plovers; 2) reducing the likelihood of other that program took place from 1997 to 2006. species found in the area being listed under the Endangered Species Act; and 3) testing the In late 2006, the governors of Nebraska, Colorado, assumption that managing water flow in the Wyoming and the Secretary of the Interior signed central Platte River also improves the pallid the final program agreement, effective January 1, sturgeon's lower Platte River habitat . 2007. The first increment of the Program is for 13 years, On May 8, 2008 the President signed into law from 2007 to 2019. legislation to implement the federal share of the Program as part of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008. This authorized the federal First Increment Goals funding for the Program. • Increasing stream flows in the central Platte ;rte: River during relevant time periods. This 3 3 � includes reducing target flow shortages up _ 11110 �' �' � 4 to an average of 130,000 to 150,000 acre-feet Y. _ per year. • Protecting, restoring where appropriate, and maintaining at least 10,000 acres of habitat between Lexington and Chapman, Nebraska. j • Accommodating new water related activities `- t consistent with long-term Program goals. ■ Credit:Mark Peyton 1