Cottonwood Ranch Monitoring and Research

Dale reviewed that the FC and GC had set a budget of $40,000 to conduct monitoring and research at Nebraska Public Power District's (NPPD) Cottonwood Ranch Property in 2004 as part of a post "event" measurement. Since this initial action, the GC approved $17,000 of the $40,000 to fund the stage gage located at the property, reducing the remaining budget to $23,000. The Technical Committee (TC) worked with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) to identify when the post-event measurement work should be conducted and an estimated budget. The budget proposed is $28,169. To fully fund the project the TC recommended and the FC agreed to reprioritize $5,169 from the 2003 Tern and Plover Report to the 2004 Cottonwood Ranch Monitoring and Research. The report will be written as part of the existing Executive Director's budget.

During the FC meeting there was discussion regarding conducting the measurements earlier this spring to evaluate impacts of several icing events on the channel. The FC decided to recommend to the GC funding the TC proposal but modified the timing to have the measurements taken as soon as possible after ice out. The FC also asked that the TC develop another proposal to evaluate geomorphology and biological resources following an EA pulse flow, if one should occur.

The GC agreed to reallocate the $5,169 and fund the ice out measurements.

The Spring 2004 Whooping Crane Monitoring and Research proposal from the TC included $90,000 with a $5,000 contingency for monitoring and $8,000 for research. The TC has $90,000 budgeted for spring 2004 monitoring. The TC recommended applying the remaining budget from the 2003 Tern and Plover report ($2,331) to this effort. The balance of $10,669 would need to come from the unallocated contingency budget. The FC recommended funding these efforts.