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I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I 000663 The provisions of Section 7 were the first statutory prohibitions that directly addressed habitat destruction. In order for section 7 of the ESA to be applicable to a certain habitat area, it must be designated as "critical habitat". A definition of critical habitat, pertaining to endangered and threatened species, published jointly by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service in the Federal Register of January 4,1978 (43 FR 870-876) stated: "Critical habitat means any air, land, or water area (exclusive of those existing man-made structures or settlements whieh are not necessary to the survival and recovery of a listed species) and constituent elements thereof, the loss of which would appreciably decrease the likelihood of the survival and recovery of a listed species or a distinct segment of its population. The constituent elements of critical habitat include, but are not limited to: physical structures and topography, biota, climate, human activity, and the quality and chemical content of land, water and air. Critical habitat may represent any portion of the present habitat of a listed species and may include additional areas for reasonable population expansion. " Shortly after this definition was incorporated into federal regulations, on May 15, 1978, the Department of Interior designated 86 kilometers of the central Platte River as "critical habitat" (43 Federal Register 20938-20942), Figure 1. As a result, future projects along the Platte River, from that time on, were required to offset impacts to the critical habitat resulting from their intended action. It is largely due to several proposed projects along the Platte River system in the 1980's that studies were performed by federal and state agencies and private firms to evaluate the effect of changes in river characteristics, such as flow rate or geomorphology, and their impact on endangered or threatened species, These studies have provided a much greater understanding of the changes in the areal extent of the Platte River system habitats since pre- settlement times. The two habitat components that have been reduced the most are (1) open, un vegetated river channel, and (2) the grassland complex (Currier et. al. 1985). According to Currier (et. al. 1985), an average 67% of the water- carrying channel area has been lost and converted to brushland and forest in the Big Bend reach. Within the 80.5 miles of the Big Bend reach of the Platte 5