Agenda and Minutes

Status Reports

Governance Committee and Finance Committee

The pre-proposal for the Tern and Plover Survey was approved by the FC and the FC accepted the TC's protocol priority as a working priority list for the Cooperative Agreement period. The FC committee may choose to change the priority at some future date.

Black and White Aerial Photography

Horizons, Inc., has been put on notice that they should plan to take the aerial photographs within the next one to two weeks. Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District will be asked to maintain a flow of approximately 1,000 CFS or lower for a period prior to the photography.

Cottonwood Ranch Property Monitoring and Research Project

There was nothing new to report.

Whooping Crane Aerial Survey Monitoring

Gary Lingle, AIM, Environmental Consultants, asked for clarification on priorities while implementing the Whooping Crane Protocol. Because of limitations in the size of the field crew and the range of their hand-radios, there could be a time when a choice will be required between following whooping cranes that are known to be in the area and keeping contact with the aerial surveyors (i.e., positioning the ground crew in the geographic center of the route). The TC agreed the top priority of the field crew should be testing the protocol and asked that cooperators go to the location of whooping cranes known to be in the area. The contractor's ground crew begin each day an aerial survey is being conducted at the center of the survey to maintain radio contact.

Gary Lingle also asked if his crew could forgo use-site measurements at locations in fields. Gary felt that sediment and distance to nearest obstruction would take too much time and would require lots of landowner contacts. The TC decided that in fields with no standing water, all measurements could be obtained from the nearest access point (e.g., from off-site) using a laser-range finder to get distance to visual obstruction and by using a soil map to get soil type. Fields with standing water will have all measurements taken on site.

Item 4 on FWS guidelines was discussed. Sharon Whitmore will discuss the guidelines with the Grand Island office and determine if the guideline could be modified to allow habitat measurements at sites where birds are seen, following 48 hours of nonuse at the site. Mike Fritz suggested that in channels if no birds are seen in 48 hours, measurements could be done in mid-afternoon.

Sharon will also suggest that Item 2 be changed to allow observations from private roads with permission.

Protocols

Whooper Watch Ground Survey - Shay Howlin updated the TC on the Whooper Watch survey being conducted by the National and Nebraska Wildlife Federation. Surveys will start March 25, 2001. A random sample of roads was selected and defined as twenty-six routes. Lynx Spatial Technology will use GIS to map the routes. The number of times each route is visited will depend on the number of volunteers available to implement the survey. Dave Carlson expressed concerned about endorsing the Whooper Watch Ground Survey. Dale pointed out that NWF expressed desire to help with monitoring and research and that he is asking the TC for consensus on the protocol, but not its implementation by volunteers. Rick Brown indicated that the ground (Whooper Watch) survey should start the same time as aerial survey.

Tern and Plover

TC comments on the data sheets were discussed. Temperature and river mile designations were added to the nest habitat form. It was suggested that river mile be added to the form as an indication of location. Mark Czaplewski offered to monitor the sand pits near Grand Island. Jim Jenniges, Jeff Marcus, Shay Howlin, and Erika Wilson will meet to discuss implementation of the protocol. The Executive Director's office will coordinate the meeting. There was discussion on the comments on data sheets.

General Monitoring

Vegetation - Sharon supported creating a land use/land cover GIS map at end of the first increment for comparison with the 1998 GIS map of the same resources. Sharon had concerns with the cost of the proposed vegetation portion of the General Monitoring Protocol, especially the cost and usefulness of measuring vegetation parameters in entire Progrm area. Mark Czaplewski spoke for the sampling approach previously discussed by the TC, as did Mark Peyton. Rick Brown supported sampling and to save money, suggested reducing frequency of sampling. TC agreed that they would decide if a GIS layer at end of the first increment was desirable. The ED office will estimate the cost of doing one complete survey and then TC can decide if it is worth the cost and if so, how often it should be done.

Management Specific Vegetation Surveys - Bob Henszey pointed out that TC studies would not establish cause and effect between changes on program lands and program activity. He suggested using data from wells located on program lands in analysis of transect data to help relate vegetation changes to river hydrology.

Rare Plant Communities - Concern was expressed that sampling will not capture rare plant communities and that they could be lost due to management activities. Dale requested that Mike Fritz and Bob Henszey develop a list of rare plant communities that would be considered when acquiring and managing lands. Rick Brown suggested the list exclude habitats rare along the central Platte, but common elsewhere. The TC also thought that GIS (98) layer should include these rare plant communities. The TC does not consider this a monitoring issue.

The TC will consider proposing $3,000 to augment the Executive Director's budget such that they could test the Management Specific portion of the protocol. Dale noted that WEST, Inc., has been selected in a competitive bid by CNPPID to conduct vegetation monitoring on Jeffrey Island and Cottonwood Ranch. The proposed amount will allow the field personnel to conduct the measurements without further travel and setup costs.

Adjourn for March 14 at approximately 5:45 p.m.

Call to Order for March 15 at approximately 8:15 a.m.

Aerial Photography Protocol

The TC was asked to send addition comments to the ED's office by April 2. Return revised draft by April 13.

Monitoring EA and Other Flows

Tim Randall and Peter Murphy (through Sharon Whitmore) proposed a manipulative study to observe the influence of a 4000 cfs flow event below Sutherland on sediment movement and vegetation removal. Sharon's office will review the proposal and provide it to the TC. The TC thought this year would be to early for this type of study and would prefer next year.

Several TC members supported monitoring this year for evaluating the performance of EA water in accomplishing the other purposes of EA releases (besides peak flow). Dale suggested that the general monitoring (system-wide) protocol could be used for this purpose. Temperature and in-channel vegetation were two examples of EA-related monitoring that would need to be added to the general monitoring protocol. The TC will try to establish in-channel monitoring using the general protocol this year. The TC would like to know the EA plans for this year to ensure that monitoring includes the correct parameters in a year.

Discussion ensued about temperature data. The ED's office will evaluate existing temperature data and summarize additional needs. Rick Brown suggested talking with Bob Simons regarding what should be measured in-channel. Simons will be invited to the April meeting.

Dave suggested analysis of EA release data and gauge data to see if EA management effects on stream hydrology can be tracked, how far, and relationship to magnitude of releases from EA in comparison to NDNR tracking and accounting records. No decision was made regarding this suggestion.

Fish Flows

The discussion on fish monitoring wavered from strong to no support for monitoring. Mark Czaplewski stated that the monitoring should be directly related to the jeopardy issues. Discussion was tabled until the baseline document is available. Dave Carlson stated the baseline would be available May 1, 2001.

Database

Dale described a database being managed by the USGS-BRD in Fort Collins for several federal agencies. He asked for an initial TC reaction to the use of a database management system for the Program, managed by a federal agency. Dale explained that the TC would still need to develop the database structure and interface for data retrieval, which will cost money. There was general agreement that a federally housed server would be acceptable, although the committee agreed that the selection of a data base manager should be through a competitive process. Dave Carlson will contact Mike Starbuck about the USGS database maintained in Rolla, Missouri, since Randy Parker is storing data collected for TC funded activities in the database. The federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and Nebraska FOIA issues were raised. The TC was asked to forward questions/issues to Dale by March 23 and he will meet with the USGS-BRD staff in Fort Collins, Colorado, to learn more details about the database management system.

Sediment Research

Research related to sediment is still in the discussion stage. The states sediment contractor (Parsons, Carter Johnson, and Morrison & Assoc) will be looking at the Sediment/Vegetation (Randall/Murphy) Model and other data. The contractor may propose alternatives to address sediment issue. The states are in the process of negotiating the contract. ED will circulate scope of work, if available from the states. It was suggested that the TC might be able to get a briefing from Parsons at the TC meeting in May in Denver in association with GC meeting.

Monitoring Categories and Budget (IMRP) for the Program

The TC agreed to reach consensus on monitoring and research during CA period at the April 19 TC meeting. They also agreed to reach consensus on documents for peer review for CA at the April meeting.

Baseline Needs and Goals Discussion

The FWS internal review should be done by May 1, 2001. Missing components are being added and will be available as a reference. Mark Czaplewski requested a list of data layers available on EIS GIS land cover and land use.

Adaptive Management

The TC suggested that the IMRP should include a section on compliance monitoring, tracking & accounting. Dale asked for comments on IMRP (except table 1) and particular attention to ARM sections.

Adjourn for March 15 at approximately 1:00 p.m.

Future Meetings

April 19/20, 2001 Cheyenne, Wyoming

For further information, contact the Technical Committee chair

 

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