Agenda Item: Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement ‎(4)‎

• File Number: 8461.100
• Description: Adaptive Management Workgroup
• State: CO
• Basin: South Platte
• Water Division: 1
• Date: 3/21/2002
• Author: Rick Brown, Randy Seaholm
• Title: Agenda Item: Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement
• Water Supply Pro - Doc Type: Board Memo

STATE OF COLORADO
Colorado Water Conservation Board
Department of Natural Resources
1313 Sherman Street, Room 721
Denver, Colorado 80203
Phone: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
www.cwcb.state.co.us
MEMORANDUM
To: Colorado Water Conservation Board
From: Rick Brown, Platte River Coordinator, Interstate Streams Investigation
Randy Seaholm, Chief, Interstate Streams Investigation
Date: March 21, 2002
Subject: Agenda Item 19.d, March 21-22, 2002 Board Meeting,
Platte River Endangered Species Cooperative Agreement.
Bill Owens
Governor
Greg E. Walcher
Executive Director
Rod Kuharich
CWCB Director
Dan McAuliffe
Deputy Director
1. Introduction
In 1997 the Governors of the states of Colorado, Nebraska and Wyoming signed an agreement with
the Department of Interior to improve and/or study the habitat of four endangered species in the
Central Platte River in Nebraska. The Cooperative Agreement was extended through June 30, 2003
to allow additional time to formulate a proposed program. The proposed program has three
components: water, land, and monitoring and research. This memorandum will highlight some of
the key issues under discussion at the present.
II. Status of Cooperative Agreement Activities
Environmental Imnact Statement
The Cooperative Agreement (CA) participants have begun to assemble the written documents that
describe in some detail the individual elements of the proposed program. The compilation of these
individual elements will be the proposed program, which in turn will be described and evaluated in
the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The EIS team, which primarily includes staff from the
Bureau of Reclamation and United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service), has begun writing the
EIS and has agreed to share preliminary draft information as it becomes available. This is good
news as it will allow us the opportunity to offer improvements to the document early on. We expect
to see an initial draft description of the proposed program sometime shortly after the March Board
meeting.
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