Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River (2005) / Chapter Skim
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8 Conclusions and Recommendations
8 Conclusions and Recommendations
Pages 240-257
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From page 240... ...
included in its charge. In this chapter, for each question, we state our conclusions and the primary sources of evidence leading to them.
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agencies related to species recovery, because it was released after the committee finished its deliberations. The Central Platte River recovery implementation program proposed in the cooperative agreement by the Governance Committee also was not evaluated, because it was specifically excluded from the committee's charge.
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Whooping cranes have used the newly cleared areas, but the overall effects of clearing on the crane population and on the structure of the river are not completely known. As with most habitat-management strategies in the central Platte River, there has been no specific monitoring to assess the success of clearing.
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Conclusions: The committee concluded that, given available knowledge, current central Platte habitat conditions adversely affect the likelihood of survival of the whooping crane, but to an unknown degree. The Platte River is important to whooping cranes: about 7% of the total whooping crane population stop on the central Platte River in any one year, and many, if not all, cranes stop over on the central Platte at some point in their lifetimes.
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2. Is the current designation of central Platte River habitat as "critical habitat" for the whooping crane supported by existing science?
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3. Do current central Platte habitat conditions affect the likelihood of survival of the piping plover?
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Conclusions: The designation of central Platte habitat as critical habitat for the piping plover is scientifically supportable. Until the last several years, the central Platte supported substantial suitable habitat for the piping plover, including all "primary constituent elements" required for successful reproduction by the species.
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The number of terns using the Platte River is about two-thirds of the number needed to reach the interior least tern recovery goal for the Platte. The interior tern is nesting in substantial numbers on the adjacent lower Platte River, but numbers continue to decline on the central Platte, reflecting declining habitat conditions there.
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(M.M. Czaplewski et al., Central Platte Natural Resources District, unpublished material, August 22, 2003)
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(M.M. Czaplewski et al., Central Platte Natural Resources District, unpublished material, August 22, 2003)
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The committee also concluded that suitable habitat characteristics along the central Platte River are essential to the survival and recovery of the piping plover and the interior least tern. No alternative habitat exists in the 1The committee did not consider USGS's in-progress evaluation of the models and data used by USFWS to set flow recommendations for whooping cranes.
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, the quality and availability of sites are unpredictable from year to year. The committee further concluded that suitable habitat for the whooping crane along the central Platte River is essential for its survival and recovery because such alternatives as the Rainwater Basin and other, smaller rivers are used only intermittently, are not dependable from one year to the next, and appear to be inferior to habitats offered by the central Platte River.
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Conclusions: The committee reached its conclusions for the preceding nine questions with reasonable confidence based on the scientific evidence available. However, the committee identified the following gaps in key information related to threatened and endangered species on the central and lower Platte River, and it recommends that they be addressed to provide improved scientific support for decision making.
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There are substantial gaps in integrative scientific understanding of the connections between species that use the habitats of the central and lower Platte River and adjacent habitat areas, such as the Rainwater Basin of southern Nebraska and the Loup, Elkhorn, and Niobrara Rivers and other smaller northern Great Plains rivers. The committee is confident that the central Platte River and lower Platte River are essential for the survival and recovery of the listed bird species and pallid sturgeon.
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· The cost effectiveness of conservation actions related to threatened and endangered species on the central and lower Platte River is not well known. Neither the cost effectiveness nor the equitable allocation of measures for the benefit of Platte River species has been evaluated.
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· Some of the basic facts of issues regarding threatened and endangered species in the central and lower Platte River are in dispute because of unequal access to research sites. Free access to all data sources is a basic tenet of sound science, but DOI agencies and Nebraska corporations managing water and electric power do not enter discussions about threatened and endangered species on the central and lower Platte River with the same datasets for species and physical environmental characteristics.
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Our scientific knowledge is not yet adequate to contribute to decisions regarding the exact role of the central and lower Platte River in the recovery of the whooping crane and pallid sturgeon. Valid science supports critical habitat designations for the piping plover, but the scientific support of critical habitat designation for the whooping crane is weak.
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CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 257 successful. Policy that relies on scientific knowledge about change through time and over geographic space is the most likely avenue to success in the search for accommodation between economic vitality and diverse and sustainable populations of wildlife that are neither threatened nor endangered.
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