BOARD00503

• Board Meeting Date: 5/24/2004
• Description: WSP Section - Platte River Recovery Implementation Program Update. Draft Environmental Impact Statement and National Academy of Science Update.
• Board Meetings - Doc Type: Memo

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Endangered IInd Threatened Specics of lite Plaut! Rhw

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FigUft' $-1 General location and features of Plane River Basin. including its position across
100th meridian. Source: Adapted from DOl 2003.

system of large dams \\ iIh storage reservoirs and di\'l.:rsion works with canals prO\'idcs sLlch
benefits as water supply, tlood comrol. electrical power generation. and recreation: it also has
sub~lantially altered the ri\'er"s h~ drology and gcomorpholog:-. Additional hydrological
alterations occur with additions to groundwater through seepage from canals and irrigation and
subtr3ctions from wells. The geomorphic and h:-drclogicalalterations have caused ch:mges in
wildlife habitJt and may affecI species that depend on particular lypes of habitat. For example.
altered stream flow has resulted in the expansion of woodlands and narrowing of river channels,
but the endangereJ and threatened birds that breed or stop ovcr in the central Platte Ri\"cr appear
10 prefer sparscly vegetated. open. sandy areas near shallow waler.
Protection of federally listed species has been in tension \\ ith water management in the
Platte RiYt:r Basin for more lhan 25 years" Dam construction. new di\"crsions. and federal
re-licensing afpower projects have all been complicaled by conflicts with the percein:d needs of
endangered and threatened species, The conlliels \\ere sharpe:1ed by the ongoing litigation
among the basin states owr division oflhe \\aters oflhe :\orth Plane Ri\"er. \\hich is not
governed b) .:tn interstate comrJct. In 1997, in an effort tv find a nonadn:rsJ.rial means of
resohing listed-species disputes in the Platte Riwr Basin. the basin statcs and the federal
government entered into a c00perati\"e .:tgreem~f1t that established a Governancc Comminee
rerresenting stale. federal. en\"ironmental. and water-user int.:n:sts, The .:omminee was ~harg~d
with dcveloping and implementing a reco\'er:- program for thc listed species of the basin,
Progress toward a recovery program pro\"ed slower than the p.:mies had hoped, )'leanwhile.
implcmentation ofthe ESA in the Platte Rivcr BJ.sin was increasingly contro\"ersial as the CoSo
Fish and \\'ildlife Service (USFWS) issued a seri~s of "jeopardy opinions", tinding th:lt any n~w
depIctions of the Platte River would haw to be compensJ.ted by mitigation measures, and a
lawsuit forced the designation of "critical habitat" for the northern Grc:n Plains pepulation of the

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