DRAFT Minutes
Technical Committee Meeting
December 4, 2002
Rowe Sanctuary
Gibbon NE

Agenda and Minutes

Paul Tebbel, Technical Committee (TC) Chair, called the meeting to order. No changes to the agenda were made. The October TC minutes were approved as written.

Status Reports

Governance Committee and Finance Committee - Dale Strickland reported on recent Governance Committee (GC) activities. A major discussion topic at the recent GC workshop was the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) review. The current plan has one final report being prepared in 12 months instead of a preliminary report in 6 months and the final in 18 months after the contract is signed. Two public meetings are planned for the NAS to collect information. Dale noted that other items worked on by the GC include: dissolving the Outreach Committee, approval of the pallid sturgeon monitoring and research issue, and direction to the Drafting Committee that the Land Action Plan (LAP) should be fully explained in a single document. The GC agreed that relevant sections from other documents referred to in the LAP could be circulated with the LAP, to assist the public in their review. The GC did not want to have an "unofficial" LAP circulated for public review.

DEIS/BO Update - Sharon Whitmore reported that the EIS schedule is being discussed at the upper levels of DOI. The issue will be addressed at the December 10-11 GC workshop.

Whooping Crane Monitoring - Clayton Derby reported that Greystone Environmental Consulting completed the aerial survey portion of the monitoring on November 10; however, they are still trying to complete measurement of all of the use sites and decoy locations. Greystone inquired about the availability of additional funding to complete the field measurements. The TC agreed that all transect measurements and report need to be completed under the current budget. The TC did agree to pay for the transit and rod purchased by Greystone, which will become part of the TC's property inventory. Concern was raised that significant time has lapsed between whooping crane use of the river and measurement of the remaining transects.

Cottonwood Ranch Property Activities - Jim Jenniges reported that almost all of the trees have been cleared but that some tree piles still need to be burned. Also, the tern and plover islands have been cleared with some of this material being pushed into the flowing channel. It was agreed that interested TC members would meet at 9:00 a.m. on December 5 to tour the activities completed at Cottonwood Ranch.

Budget Proposal

Clayton reviewed the current draft proposal and identified the four main areas in which funding is being requested: protocol development (both new and revisions to existing protocols), data analysis, peer review of protocols, and additional funding for Cottonwood Ranch Monitoring and Research. The TC agreed to prioritize the requested budget items to help assist the FC and GC in their funding decisions. The prioritized list agreed to was: Cottonwood Ranch, peer review, revisions to existing protocols, data analysis, and development of new protocols. The TC made other editorial comments and agreed that the proposal should be submitted to the FC and GC.

Protocols

Fish Protocol

It was noted that the Districts are going to conduct fish monitoring in 2003 using the methodology developed by Chadwick. NGPC and FWS are also developing a protocol that will be implemented concurrently with the Districts efforts. This will allow a comparison between the two methods. Information from these efforts will be used to develop a fish sampling protocol for the Program.

Whooping Crane Protocol Peer Review

Clayton reported that he had contacted several potential peer reviewers in the general categories of: whooping crane expert, ornithologist, and design. Resumes of those individuals interested and available to complete the review by mid- to late-January were distributed to the TC prior to the meeting. The TC selected Dr. Scott Urquhart (design expert), Dr. Rod Drewien (whooping crane expert), and Mr. Brian Johns (whooping crane expert) as the peer review panel. The TC also agreed that the review should be conducted similar to a manuscript review in that separate comments from the reviewers are expected as opposed to one consolidated review.

R3-1/Protocols

Sharon Whitmore reported that she will work with the Executive Director's office identify those discrepancies between the R3-1 Data Table and protocols that are actually missing data needs and those items that are simply different use of terms or phrases (definitional issues). This will help focus a future TC discussion on modification to the protocols or the R3-1 Data Table.

In-Channel Habitat Investigations

The Executive Director's office was asked by the GC to develop language for inclusion in the draft Integrated Monitoring and Research Plan (IMRP) describing the how research will be done on new habitat management practices, in particular on how items such as sediment augmentation and island lowering would be evaluated through research before being considered an accepted management practice. Draft language was added to the adaptive management section and a figure was developed describing evaluating these actions beginning at a small scale, moving to larger scales and eventually to an accepted management practice. Each phase included an option to discontinue the practice, modify it, or move to a larger scale. The GC generally agreed with the concept at their November meeting. The TC discussed the need to add detail to the figure on what will be done at evaluation points and to tie the adaptive management back to the habitat hypothesis identified in the draft Land Action Plan and not just to the method be researched. Additional comments are due by December 15, 2002.

Pallid Sturgeon Baseline

A revised Pallid Sturgeon Baseline section was distributed prior to the meeting. Concern was raised that the current reference used in the baseline documenting the historic occurrence of the pallid sturgeon does not actually document the Platte River as historic range. Concern was also raised that the tables identifying information provided from the NGPC pallid sturgeon log includes unconfirmed sightings and sightings in which a biologist concluded the fish in question was not a pallid sturgeon through an interview. Additional comments are due by December 15, 2002.

Future Meetings

February 24-25, 2002 - Kearney, Nebraska (this meeting has subsequently been rescheduled to January 16 or 17 in Ogallala)

Adjourn - 5:00 p.m.

For further information, contact the Technical Committee chair

 

---

For further information about the Partnership, contact any Governance Committee member.
For comments and questions about this website, please email Buck Feist or call 406-247-7607