Welcome to the Platte River Endangered Species Partnership!

The states of Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado and the U.S. Department of the Interior (Interior) signed a Cooperative Agreement on July 1, 1997, to address several Endangered Species Act (ESA) issues affecting water development in the Platte River Basin. The initiative has two main purposes:

1. To develop and implement a Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (Program) to maintain, improve and conserve habitat for four threatened and endangered species that use the Platte River in Nebraska: whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tern, and pallid sturgeon.
2. To enable existing and new water uses in the Platte River Basin to proceed without additional ESA requirements for the four target species.

A Governance Committee comprised of members from the three states, federal government, environmental interests, and water users, with the assistance of several subcommittees has been working since 1997 to develop the details of a proposal for the First Increment of the Program. The primary components of the Program are a Water Plan, Land Plan, and Adaptive Management Plan which includes an Integrated Monitoring and Research Plan. The Program also identifies the First Increment to be achieved, how finances will be handled, and what the structure of the Governance Committee, subcommittees, and relationship to Program staff will be during the Program. The Program would be implemented incrementally, with the First Increment occurring over 13 years. The current proposed Program identifies the process for transitioning into any subsequent increments.

The original Cooperative Agreement assumed that a Program proposal could be completed in three years. In view of a very complex set of issues, the completion of a number of the original milestones has taken longer than expected, and several new tasks have been developed. Therefore, the three Governors and the Secretary of Interior have extended the Cooperative Agreement to October 1, 2006.

Governance Committee's Program Documents

The Governance Committee has completed work on the Program Document.

Final Environmental Impact Statement

The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have jointly prepared a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS), evaluating the impacts of the Governance Committee’s proposal and three other alternatives for a Program. The FEIS identifies the Governance Committee Alternative as the Department’s preferred alternative. See Platte River Recovery Implementation Program FEIS, Volume 1 (pdf), Volume 2 (attachments) (pdf) and Summary (pdf). Also see the FEIS Press Release (pdf) and FAQ (frequently asked questions (pdf). Volume 3 (technical reports) consisting of 6 compact disks (CD) is available upon request.

(A DEIS was released for public review and comment on January 23, 2004. See DEIS (pdf), Summary report (pdf) and DEIS FAQs. Public Hearings were conducted during July and August 2004. The comment period ended September 20, 2004.)

In addition to the copy posted on this web site, you may request hard copies or a CD with the document from Dan Fritz, Bureau of Reclamation, GP-4200, P.O. Box 36900, Billings, MT 59107; or by email (dfritz@gp.usbr.gov), or by phone at 406-247-7638. A summary document is also available.

Biological Opinion

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has prepared a Biological Opinion (BO) for the Final EIS preferred alternative (the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program) assessing whether the alternative will meet the requirements of the Endangered Species Act. The BO and appendices were released on June 20, 2006 and may be downloaded from the Service's public access FTP site at: http://www.fws.gov/filedownloads/ftp_region6_upload under the folder named "Platte River final biological opinion". Click on BO and appendices (pdf) to view the files on this web site.

See also the BO Press Release (pdf) and FAQ (frequently asked questions) (pdf).

National Academy of Sciences Review

In January 2003 the Department of the Interior contracted with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to establish a multidisciplinary committee to evaluate the science regarding the central Platte River habitat needs and flow recommendations for the federally listed whooping crane, piping plover, interior least tern, and for the pallid sturgeon in the lower Platte River. The committee reviewed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's assessments of how current Platte River operations and resulting hydrogeomorphological and ecological habitat conditions affect the likelihood of survival of and/or limit the recovery of these species, and whether other Platte River habitats do or can provide the same values that are essential to the survival and/or recovery of these species. The committee considered the scientific foundations for the current federal designation of central Platte habitat as "critical habitat" for the whooping crane and Northern Great Plains breeding population of the piping plover.

Guided by a scope, ten questions provided by the Governance Committee, and through participation in two public hearings, the study examined the scientific aspects of (1) the processes and methods used by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in developing its central Platte River instream flow recommendations, taking the needs of the listed species into account (i.e., annual pulse flows, and peak flows); 2) characteristics described in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service habitat suitability guidelines for the central Platte River; and (3) the Department of the Interior's conclusions about the interrelationships among sediment movement, hydrologic flow, vegetation, and channel morphology in the central Platte River.

The report was released April 28, 2004.

Public Input

Input from all Platte River interests is essential for successful cooperative management of this important resource. The Governance Committee intends to provide useful and timely information to the public and continuing opportunities for you to contribute to these activities. The Governance Committee will use direct mailings and other means to announce meetings and other activities. All Governance Committee meetings and subcommittee meetings are open to the public and are listed on this web site on the Activities page. Due to the current status of Partnership activities, these meetings are being held less frequently at this time.

Comments or questions

Comments or questions regarding the Governance Committee may be directed to Jerry Kenny, Ph.D at:

Platte River Endangered Species Partnership Office
3710 Central Avenue, Suite E
Kearney, NE 68847
308-237-5728 (voice)

Anyone wishing to be on the mailing list or provide comments regarding Governance Committee activities should contact the Platte River Endangered Species Partnership Office at the above address.

Please keep checking back here for our associated studies, and NEPA compliance.