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I I I Executive Summary I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I making procedures, either in the Principles and Guidelines or in the agency regulations, should be considered for environmental restoration and recovery projects. The Bureau of Reclamation should consider either modifying its existing regulations pertaining to planning and environmental restoration projects or developing new regulations comparable to those. already completed by the Corps of Engineers for environmental restoration projects. This would permit the two major federal water agencies to at least have comparable planning procedures and requirements for environmental restoration projects. 3. The federal agencies need to develop better tools to provide technical support to the states in resolving water conflicts. Fundamental to solving many of the water resources conflicts in the Platte River basin is the development ofa recovery program acceptable to the water users, federal agencies, environmentalists, and states. A model ofthe Platte River basin, including the alluvium, is a necessary tool required for developing a successful recovery program for the Platte River. Such a model, which all three states and the federal agencies would have to accept in order to make the model effective, would provide a vehicle for investigating and specifying operation and development plans capable of providing habitat flows to the Big Bend area. Development of the Colorado River Decision Support System for use in the Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program provides an example of the importance of a decision support system in a recovery program. In order to be acceptable to all three states, such a flow model or decision support system would need to be developed cooperatively by the three states together with the federal agencies. Such a cooperative effort would require resolving some of the distrust that has existed between the states and federal agencies and that has prevented development of a Platte River flow model acceptable to all three states and the federal agencies in the past. Another major contribution to development of a successful recovery program for the endangered species in the Platte River would be the establishment of more reliable quantitative linkages between flow characteristics and the response of individual species and their habitats. Substantial work has already been conducted by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to develop quantitative estimates of the river flows and restored acres needed to protect threatened and endangered species. Much of this work was conducted under the auspices of the Platte River Management Joint Study with the involvement of water users and environmentalists. The goal of Xl