Endangered and Threatened Species of the Platte River (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Regional Context for Water and Species
2 Regional Context for Water and Species
Pages 32-72
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 32... ...
The landscape and resources of the central Platte River Basin are no exception, and connections among land, water, wildlife, and human activities have shaped the present conditions. Understanding the central Platte ecosystem requires knowledge of habitat needs of the species and of the complexity of their interactions with natural and human controls.
|
From page 33... ...
The South Platte River originates in the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains around the valley of South Park, Colorado, and flows northeastward past Denver; it leaves the state at the northeast corner and joins the North Platte in west central Nebraska. The combined streams form the Platte River, which flows generally eastward through Nebraska; its valley has a distinctive southward bend, sometimes referred to locally as the "Big Bend." The Platte River joins the Missouri River south of Omaha at Plattsmouth and is its largest tributary (Figure 2-1)
|
From page 34... ...
. They occupied the central Platte in Nebraska and other areas, including the Loup River, cultivating crops, gathering wild fruits and vegetables, and hunting bison and other wildlife.
|
From page 35... ...
35 permission; with Reprinted 1957. Atwood and Raisz Source: regions.
|
From page 36... ...
Sheridan ordered the destruction of their subsistence resources with the statement "Kill the buffalo and you kill the Indians." The federal government had removed the tribes from the Platte region by the end of the 1870s. Trapping of beaver and intensive hunting of bison for both strategic purposes and sport characterized the beginning of substantial EuroAmerican-induced changes in the fauna of the Platte River Basin.
|
From page 37... ...
Trans-Mississippi the Years black of the Map heavy by on Between shown shown as Louis is St. River Basin from Platte River North Platte Conducted of as along Portion Trade then 2-4 Fur and FIGURE American westward
|
From page 38... ...
. The first relatively large dams built in the basin were constructed on the South Platte River: Jackson Lake (1900, 47,000 acre-ft)
|
From page 39... ...
76 38,600 1910 6.5 JID Spinney South Platte 95 83,300 1982 772 City of Mountain Aurora Chatfield South Platte 148 355,000 1973 3,018 CENWO Dam Alcova North Platte 265 184,300 1938 10,376 USBR Glendo North Platte 190 1,118,653 1958 1,500 USBR Guernsey North Platte 135 45,228 1927 2,145 USBR Pathfinder North Platte 214 1,016,500 1909 14,600 USBR Seminoe North Platte 295 1,017,279 1939 7,210 USBR Kingsley North Platte 162 1,900,600 1941 CNPPID Southerland North and 30 65,000 1935 NPPD South Platte Johnson Lake Platte 24 59,000 1941 CNPPID Canal Riverside Sanborn Draw 41 94,500 1904 89.7 RID Abbreviations: BIC, Bijou Irrigation Company; CENWO, Corps of Engineers Northwestern Division Omaha District; CNPPID, Central Nebraska Public Power and Irrigation District; DBWC, Denver Board of Water Commissioners; FRIC, Farmers Reservoir and Irrigation Company; JID, Julesburg Irrigation District; JLRC, Jackson Lake Reservoir Company; LID, Logan Irrigation District; NPPD, Nebraska Public Power District; OS, off stream; RID, Riverside Irrigation District; TR, tributary; USBR, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
|
From page 40... ...
. Additional flows occasionally occur in FIGURE 2-5 Kingsley Dam on North Platte River, completed in 1941, directly controls flows downstream through central Platte River.
|
From page 41... ...
storage canals E et N CO 1890 reservoirs, age Gage of g, NE in ur Platte Stor NE, storage added records, th 1880 Eschner ulesbJ um Duncan, Nor at Platte number at at storage were gage th Canals from 1870 Maxim Platte River Nor Platte NID th at Basin Cumulative Stream South Platte Nor 1860 reservoirs cumulative Platte: Platte Platte Adapted th th th Cumulative Basin. dams.
|
From page 42... ...
, nearly 1 million acres in Colorado and Nebraska are supplied by the South Platte River, 750,000 acres by the North Platte River, and over 200,000 acres by the Platte River mainstem. Water storage and distribution systems have produced an artificial water network along the central Platte River (Figure 2-7)
|
From page 43... ...
Corn is the most important crop in the central Platte region of Nebraska, and the top counties in production of corn for grain (not for silage
|
From page 44... ...
. Several of the most important hay-producing counties in Nebraska also are in the central Platte area.
|
From page 45... ...
In portions of the basin with rugged topography and without adequate access to irrigation water, open livestock grazing has been the dominant land use. Surface-water diversions for irrigation began in the central Platte area as early as the 1850s and 1860s (Eschner et al.
|
From page 46... ...
The Census of Agriculture shows 5,807,308 acres of land in farms in the 12 counties along the central Platte1 in 1959. Land in farms in the same area in 1997 was 5,606,895 -- a reduction of more than 200,000 acres.
|
From page 47... ...
Municipal and Industrial Water Use With the exception of the Colorado Front Range area in the South Platte drainage (including Denver) and dispersed small towns and cities, particularly near the railroad, the overall character of the Platte River Basin is agricultural, and it has been relatively sparsely inhabited (Figure 2-12)
|
From page 49... ...
is an attempt to solve some of the issues, mainly those associated with balancing the needs of water users and of threatened and endangered species in the central Platte River Basin.
|
From page 50... ...
The concern has been expressed most urgently in the central Platte River Valley in Nebraska, where the need to provide adequate streamflows and habitat for those species has become the focus of conflicts between irrigation and environmental interests. GROUNDWATER The spatial and temporal variability that characterizes surface water in the Platte River Basin are also distinctive features of its groundwater.
|
From page 51... ...
Role of Groundwater in Platte River Management Groundwater is hydrologically connected to surface water in the study area and is likely to affect riverine conditions. Management solutions that do not include a comprehensive view of water supply in the study area are not likely to be successful over the long term.
|
From page 52... ...
. Increased use lowered the level of groundwater in some areas, including the central Platte River Basin (Ellis and Pederson 1986)
|
From page 53... ...
indicate that in 1931, the Platte River from Kearney to Grand Island generally was losing water to the aquifer, whereas groundwater contours from 1995 show that the river was gaining water from the groundwater supply. The reversal is most likely due to accumulation of a groundwater mound from deep percolation of agricultural water, primarily derived from surface water imported by irrigation districts.
|
From page 54... ...
54 Source: River. Platte central of region under mound of development showing levels, groundwater of Fluctuations 2-14 2003.
|
From page 55... ...
55 from down flows Adapted Water Source: surface.
|
From page 56... ...
of table part western groundwater in of 1931 elevation since of Map occurred 2003. has 2-16 surface FIGURE of Woodward
|
From page 57... ...
Its focus is on modeling and mapping hydrologically connected groundwater in parts of 43 counties, mostly in Nebraska but extending 6 mi into Wyoming and Colorado along the North and South Platte Rivers. The area includes about 67,000 wells, mostly for irrigation; about half were installed in the 1970s (COHYST 2003)
|
From page 58... ...
At North Platte, the average annual peak flow was about 14,000 cfs (400 m3/s) before 1930;
|
From page 59... ...
It also predates the completion of three of the four largest dams in the Platte River Basin. Because flood flows are important in forming and changing the channel, geomorphology of the stream has undergone substantial adjustment, including a reduction in the active channel width.
|
From page 60... ...
Expanding woodland is reported as a primary cause of reduction in the suitability of the Platte River as habitat for the nesting or roosting of endangered or threatened aquatic avifauna. Sandhill and whooping cranes prefer roosting in wide river channels away from tall riparian vegetation (Krapu et al.
|
From page 61... ...
bank-to-bank widths in the central Platte River to have been 1,200-2,000 m in 1865. Eschner et al.
|
From page 62... ...
. FIGURE 2-20 Reconstruction of predevelopment vegetation based on GLO plat maps and field notes (source of witness tree data)
|
From page 63... ...
Smaller, floodplain-level islands were probably more protected from fire and had well-developed middle-story and upper-story vegetation. Current woodlands along many parts of the central Platte River have high tree density and welldeveloped, shrubby understories.
|
From page 64... ...
A riverine environment less modified than the present one may be possible, however, and may be beneficial to the endangered species and to other species using the area. The nature of the presettlement vegetation communities of the central Platte River has become better known, but some details are the subject of debate.
|
From page 65... ...
Such dense woodlands probably assumed a patch shape that mimicked the shape of the underlying abandoned channel, a geometry commonly observed in other modern rivers on the plains. During the presettlement period, the outer banks of the central Platte River mark ing the general limits of fluvial activity were apparently the locations of cottonwood dominated woodlands, with trees growing in isolation from each other or in limited groves.
|
From page 66... ...
There is enough information from early accounts, however, to develop a first approximation: the wide active channels had little or no vegetation except for annual plants during low-flow periods, the banks had scattered trees and small groves with prairie-like vegetation, smaller islands were numerous and heavily wooded with dense undergrowth, and large islands had some woodland and some grassland. A successful restoration of the central Platte River ecosys tem will include all those components.
|
From page 67... ...
In addition, headwater, tributary, and spring-fed side-channel reaches support species that require clear or cool water; some, such as horny head chub, have been extirpated from the basin, but others -- such as northern redbelly dace, finescale dace, plains topminnow, and Topeka shiner -- are found in isolated populations in the drainage. In general, the number of native species declines in the western portion of the basin, where 30 native species have been recorded in the North Platte Basin in Wyoming and 26 in the South Platte Basin in Colorado.
|
From page 68... ...
In years when spring advances slowly, larger numbers of birds will stage for longer periods in the central Platte Valley and the Rainwater Basin because conditions farther north are still frozen. In contrast, when spring develops rapidly and over a large area, migrating waterbirds may move through the Rainwater Basin area and central Platte River Basin more quickly (Cox and Davis 2003)
|
From page 69... ...
. Over 85% of the midcontinent sandhill crane, snow goose, Ross's goose, and greater white-fronted goose populations migrate through the central Platte River region.
|
From page 70... ...
70 of Platte Central b Proportion Population Using Platte 86% 50% 30% 61% 90% 75% 25% Central and comm., Wildlife comm., Wildlife comm., Wildlife Area b 1990 1990 pers. and pers.
|
From page 71... ...
Sharp, SGPP, Fish et Platte Valley, winter through 2003)
|
From page 72... ...
72 Adapt Source: latitudes. northern to southern from migration annual .2003.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.