Draft PRRIP GC Minutes March 2014

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PRRIP—ED OFFICE DRAFT 05/10/2014 276 Hines provided an update on the 2014 EA AOP and the waiver with Central for non-irrigation flows. 277 Barels asked if the Service will do the whooping crane flow releases. Hines said they will see what 278 happens once the ice melts. Barels asked if there is a preference among the medium priorities. Hines said 279 priorities were set when we thought it was a dry year, now conditions are normal. Summer releases will 280 depend on how dry conditions are and that will be something they will watch closely. 281 282 Hines provided an update on the Service's biannual milestones report. Kraus said in the document it is 283 confusing because there is a mix of First Increment land objectives and then language about additional 284 acres. Hines said they are trying to tweak that section to make it less confusing. Kraus said the Service 285 has supported the acquisition so far and the language in the report makes some of this less clear. Hines 286 said they have been struggling with this section and will continue to work on making is less confusing. 287 Czaplewski said he shares Kraus' concerns. Hines said the Service does agree with everything purchased 288 so far but they see the 10,000 acres as a floor but that there are other properties that may become available 289 that need to be considered. Rabbe said Thabault has always supported these acquisitions at the GC level, 290 but the Service wants to see continued efforts to acquire lands above the 10,000 acres that might offset 291 land acquired that had been previously conserved. Czaplewski asked if it would help to make the EDO's 292 biannual report more milestones-specific. Kenny said a table to accompany a map is a possibility,but the 293 biannual report from the EDO was never intended to be a milestones report. Kenny said in meeting the 294 reporting requirements, there has been a flow summary report to capture water-related efforts; for 295 adaptive management we have the State of the Platte Report; and land items are generally reported to and 296 discussed directly with the GC. We have not assembled a report specifically on the milestones. Rabbe 297 said this was developed when Mike George was in the office and that fed into this report. There has been 298 a quick transition since he left and the Service has been trying to determine how to move forward with 299 this kind of reporting. Kenny said the EDO will consider developing a milestones report. 300 301 Campbell said he would like to see the Service's take on whether the Program has met the various goals 302 and ideas for enhancement beyond the goals. LaBonde said in regard to the conservation lands that have 303 been required,the Program did not target those lands they instead came to us and land that was going on 304 the market and there was concern about whether those lands would remain in conservation ownership. 305 Kraus asked about prioritizing water acquisition above Lake McConaughy and what that means. He does 306 not know what that is all about and Central has concerns about inflows into Lake McConaughy. Bradley 307 said conversations have just been starting and his understanding is the Service is looking to find ways to 308 make sure water is getting into the EA. Hines said that is partially the objective,and the other objective is 309 to just get water into Lake McConaughy. Sellers said when scoring projects they get dinged for losses to 310 the habitat. There seems to be a disadvantage then to putting water instead into Lake McConaughy. 311 There may need to be a shift in the idea of calculating losses all the way to the habitat. Bards said that 312 leads to another GC discussion on the fair share of water for the species. If there is a way to get water 313 from Colorado or Wyoming and get it to the species we need to find that. Hines said it is a big tradeoff 314 analysis. LaBonde said he does not want to lose sight of the two naturally occurring flood events and that 315 he thinks those should go toward crediting what the Program has done. Kenny said there have actually 316 been four events. Ament said that caught him as well. Barels asked what you want to test with 8,000 cfs 317 flows that you can't test with the natural flow events. Rabbe said if flows are higher some at the TAC say 318 you can't compare apples to oranges, and some say if it didn't work at high flows it will never work at 319 lower flows. Barels said if there is something specific the Service needs to address on this question, we 320 need to know what those issues are so the Program can address them. 321 PRRIP March 11-12,2014 GC Meeting Minutes Page 7 of 9