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(Lincoln, NE) Gov. Dave Heineman has signed the formal document agreeing to the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP). The Governor received the agreement from Colorado Gov. Bill Owens, who signed it late last week. After signing, Gov. Heineman forwarded the document to Gov. Dave Fruedenthal of Wyoming.
All three Governors and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne must sign onto the document before it becomes a formal agreement. Gov. Heineman based his signing on the need to protect the future of Nebraska agriculture and its water resources.
"The program's basin-wide approach offers Nebraska agricultural producers important opportunities for input, provides a measure of regulatory certainty, and clearly protects the future of Panhandle agriculture, while also giving farmers and ranchers some degree of protection from federal action," Gov. Heineman wrote in a letter last week that signaled his intent to sign. "We have a rare opportunity to work with water users and the environmental community to achieve federal objectives for the Endangered Species Act while respecting the need to preserve each of our states' agricultural economies."
The Platte River Recovery Implementation Program was developed jointly as a way to help the states involved comply with guidelines of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The program calls for increased river flows to help protect species native to the Platte River basin and will now be considered part of Nebraska's integrated water management plans.
Gov. Heineman wrote, "This program offers our state the greatest amount of certainty when it comes to protecting individual producers and entities from one-on-one negotiations with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service," Gov. Heineman said. "It also ensures that agriculture will have a seat at the table in discussing the future of conservation efforts along the Platte River."
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