Final Minutes
Technical Committee Meeting
Nebraska
June 26, 2001
Tour of NPPD's Cottonwood Ranch Property 1 - 5 p.m.
Jim Jenniges lead a tour of NPPD's Cottonwood Ranch Property (CWRP). Randy Parker and Paul Kinzel of the USGS described the research they are conducting for the Technical Committee (TC). Beth Lack and Karyn Sernka described the vegetation monitoring they are conducting on the CWRP and Jeffery Island for the Districts.
June 27, 2001
UNK Ockinga Hall, Kearney NE
Meeting called to order at 8:20 a.m.
Agenda and Minutes
There were two modifications proposed for the minutes. The minutes were approved as modified. Tyler Abbot will be the new US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) representative from Wyoming. Mark Czaplewski reported that Paul Obert is moving to Reno and that his name should be removed from membership and emails. Mark was uncertain if NRCS would replace Paul on the TC.
Status Reports
Governance Committee and Finance Committee - Dale briefly reviewed the Governance Committee (GC) and Finance Committee (FC) meetings. The GC gave tentative funding approval for all protocols identified by TC. Dale indicated that after the TC workshop with the GC, they seem to have a better focus on monitoring and research needs and its importance to adaptive management in the program. The GC also approved the budget for the Executive Director's Office to test the management specific portion of the General Monitoring Protocol at CWRP. The GC also approved funding for the CIR aerial photography. A brief report on the Habitat Workshop in Denver last week was given.
Black and White photos - Storage of the B&W aerial photos was discussed. The ED's Office offered to provide storage until the Program has a permanent office. The TC agreed the photos should be accessible and that a central Nebraska location would be best. There are two sets of 9x9 photos and one set of 18x18 photos. The photos are important baseline data. The photos will be scanned and available on the World Wide Web. It was also agreed that backup of copies is important. Potential storage sites include the Central Platte Natural Resources District (CPNRD) and the Grand Island FWS offices. Mark Czaplewski will talk to Ron Bishop about space at CPNRD. It was agreed that the Program would need to buy a fireproof cabinet. The ED's Office will label all photos and hold them for time being. Becky Mathisen indicated that Wyoming would probably want a set of the B&W and CIR negatives.
Color IR Aerial photos - The photos were taken the week of June 18 and prints should be available in one week and enlargements in six weeks. At the time of the flight the flows were 450 cfs at Grand Island and 250 cfs at Overton. It was agreed that the ED's office would use the same approval process as used when evaluating the B&W photos.
NPPD's Cottonwood Ranch - The research being conducted by the USGS was covered in detail in the field. Some TC members expressed concern that there appears to be little interaction between Randy Parker's work and the EIS team's work on the same subject. The TC agreed that it is important for the two groups to communicate and encourages Randy and the EIS Team to interact and take advantage of each other's data and perspectives.
Protocols
Least tern/piping plover monitoring protocol - Jim Jenniges reported that he had completed two surveys of the river west of the Kearney Diversion Dam to Lexington (see attached data). Jim indicated that the river bars greened up very fast this year and provide little habitat. Jim also surveyed sand pits along the same portion of the river and found several nests, with the majority on managed pits.
Mark Czaplewski surveyed sand pits from Gibbon to Chapman in May and June. Two tern nests were located on a pit. The nests were monitored for two weeks but were lost to predation. Gary Lingle indicated that there are likely birds at pits by Highway 10.
Jeff Runge reported that the FWS completed surveys of the lower end of the central Platte. However, no party surveyed the sand pits from Odessa to Gibbon and it is too late to follow the protocol (see July 25, 2001, minutes for further clarification). The FWS reported a total of 30 birds observed in the lower half of the central Platte, including the river from Chapman to the mouth of the Loup River. No nests were observed. The FWS will distribute data through Shay Howlin.
Shay did intensive (walking) surveys over a two-mile portion of the river. She was able to see more birds than from the airboat and felt the intensive survey will provide useful data. She estimated the protocol required three hours per mile.
Flows forced surveyors to modify the protocol to accommodate both high and low flows, resulting in a good test of the protocol. Modifications in the protocol will be discussed at the end of the field season.
General Monitoring - Beth Lack and Randy Parker briefed The TC on June 26 on methodology. Dale noted that the level of effort for the survey was based on literature describing the step-point method in grasslands. It appears that the technique requires much more time when used in dense woodlands, characteristic of the floodplain on Cottonwood Ranch. The TC will review the results of Beth's survey and may want to modify the protocol.
Habitat Protection Plan
Dale briefly described the workshop held with the GC in Denver on June 20-21. Dale noted that some issues were resolved and some unresolved issues were assigned to individuals and/or committees for further work. Dave Little is to draft language for the HPP describing the role of the FWS guidance on habitat suitability in making habitat protection decisions. Dave will also make suggestions to the FWS on language in their document describing habitat suitability. The important point is that the FWS document should be considered as guidance to the proposed Program, and not a standard for compliance. Brian Barels will draft language for the HPP describing alternative habitats (i.e., habitats other than complexes or parts of complexes) and how the proposed Program may protect them. The work of Dave and Brian will be given to the HPP Task Force for them to use in revising the HPP. The HPP Task Force will submit the revised HPP, along with suggested clarifications in the provisionally accepted Land Policy Statement ultimately to the GC. Other issues, such as adaptive management, land milestones, and a "good neighbor policy" were referred to other Subcommittees.
Whooping Crane Monitoring Report
Gary Lingle described the implementation and results of the spring survey for whooping cranes. Gary included a description of project goals, methods, results, and recommendations for changes in the protocol. Gary noted that snow geese, white pelicans, and white trash bags were often seen and resulted in delays in the survey so they could be evaluated as potential cranes. The weather was also a problem and caused the cancellation of several flights. A detailed discussion of the report ensued. The TC recommended the report keep survey data separate from anecdotal data (e.g., observations of birds while not on survey routes). The TC suggested that data on observations of birds should be standardized (e.g., observations/unit time or unit effort) for analysis. The TC also agreed that a protocol is needed for determining unique individual birds so that when observations are evaluated some estimate of the number of individual birds is possible. The TC and the ED's office will look at AIM's data sheets and decide how data should be presented so that individuals and observations are not confused. Shay Howlin was asked to work with Gary to revise the report including 1) insuring raw data are accurately reported, 2) report does not confuse assumptions with data, and 3) a report of summary statistics but not analysis.
The report contains a number of recommendations for changes in the protocol. Discussion focused on the following subset of these recommendations.
1) Communications between the ground coordinator and flight crew should improve so that that the flight crew spends less time trying to distinguish between a decoy and an actual bird.
2) The distance bands for located observations should be abandoned. Surveys should be done at a lower altitude when safety issues would allow (e.g., altitudes might change based on the number of sandhill cranes present.
3) Evaluate how the 3-mile transects should be flown when approaching towns.
4) Alternate survey start points and return routes to avoid under representation of birds at varying distances from the ends of the transects.
5) Place a limit on the distance to the nearest obstruction (e.g., > ½ mile).
6) Better define "visual obstruction".
7) Evaluate the number of transects needed to describe the use area profile.
8) Download and label photos daily to avoid errors due to delays.
The TC asked Gary to revise the report based on input today and discussions with the ED's office. The TC will provide comments on the revised draft.
The TC discussed the need for a fall whooping crane survey. A decision was deferred to the next TC meeting.
The National Wildlife Federation (NWF) has applied for a grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to provide money for additional ground surveys. NFWF has indicated they will help support the ground surveys as long as the data are useful to the Program. The TC agreed that the ED should write a letter to NFWF in support of the NWF proposal for funding for the ground survey. The ground survey data will be most useful to the Program if they are collected according to the protocol provided by the TC.
In Channel Vegetation Monitoring
The ED's office will draft a "straw" purpose and outline of a protocol on in-channel vegetation monitoring for TC review. A similar effort will follow for other protocols including the flow related monitoring of pallid sturgeon habitat and channel maintenance.
Next Meeting
The next meeting will be held July 25 in North Platte, Nebraska. The July 25 meeting will be used to complete this agenda and to have a preliminary discussion of the process for the TC review of the FWS baseline document. The detailed discussion of the FWS baseline document will be postponed until August. A tentative date for the August meeting was set for the afternoon of August 22 and the morning of August 23, in Denver.
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