BOARD00498

• Board Meeting Date: 3/10/1998
• Description: South Platte River Basin Issues - Endangered Species Issues - 3 State MOU Implementation - Status Report
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Ms. Lynn Holt, Outreach Coordinator, Platte River EIS Office, PO Box 25007, Mail
Code PL-IOO, Department of the Interior, Denver, Colorado, 80225-0007. Telephone;
[phone]. FAX: [phone].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

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Background

The States of Nebraska, Wyorning, and Colorado, and the U.S. Department of the

Interior have entered into an agreement to begin cooperatively addressing endangered

species issues affecting the Platte River Basin. (Coonerative A~eement for Platte River

Research and Other Efforts Re!atin&, to Endanl('ered Soecies Habitat Along the Central

Platte River Nehraska. Signed July 1, 1997, by the Governors of Wyoming, Colorado,

and Nebraska, and the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior,) The effort of the

participants to develop and implement a recovery implementation program (program) to

address the endangered species issues is referred to as the Platte River Endangered

Species Partnership. A copy of the Cooperative Agreement may be obtained by
contacting the Platte River EIS Office.

Purpose and Need for Action

The whooping crane, piping plover, and interior least tern, which are listed as

threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), use the Central Platte

River Valley in Nebraska. The Fish and Wildlife Service has designated the reach of the

Central Platte River from Lexington to Chapman, Nebraska, as critical habitat for the

whooping crane. The pallid sturgeon, which occurs in the Lower Platte River between its

confluence with the Elkhom and the Missouri River, is also listed as endangered.
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