Implementing the Endangered Species Act on the Platte Basin Water Commons

Acknowledgments

xxiii The many facets of water humble me. I am frequently astounded by how much I have to learn in order to grasp how little I know. This project has been made possible by the assistance and goodwill of many people who have lived and breathed Platte Basin water and environmental issues. These citizens have helped me understand issues, problems, and perspectives in public forums, small groups, private homes, public offices, committee meetings, lunches, dinners, on the banks of ditches and rivers, in farmyards, and in parking lots. They have given me tours, fed me, and patiently educated me. They have represented federal and state policy and management positions, irrigation districts, mutual companies, natural resource districts, conservancy districts, power districts, municipalities, environmental organizations, and private agricultural enterprises. Their assistance has made this project possible, and many are recognized in Appendix A. I deeply appreciate their efforts. I express gratitude most specifically to members of the Platte River Cooperative Agreement Governance Committee, established in 1997, who have constituted the epicenter of the negotiations. My research effort, among other things, has involved observing the fellowship at their table during regular meetings, as well as in negotiating team sessions, subcommittees, and special workshops. By the time the Platte River Habitat Recovery Program began in 2007, I had the benefit of a full decade of witnessing their negotiations within the formal structure of their meetings as well as the insight gained from documents and—beyond the negotiating arenas—in private and repeated individual interviews with both members and many interested parties outside the negotiating arena. a C K n o w l e D G M e n t s a CK n ow l eDG Men t s xxiv I can only hope that those who have contributed so much to my understanding will find this study of interest and fair to the contending perspectives. I hope that, with their help, I have the story straight and that they will find their efforts on my behalf to have been rewarded. To minimize errors, I have assiduously applied the comments and insights of reader-reviewers representing the several negotiating communities. Yet the contents of this study do not provide any official record of the negotiations. The text has been written from my interpretation of interview responses, meeting observations and notes, and reviews of documents. The basis of any future negotiation or litigation must rest on the contents of the Final Program Agreement signed by the governors of three states—Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming—and the secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior. I have advanced my best formulations; any errors of fact or interpretation are solely my own. ImplementIng the endangered SpecIeS act on the platte BaSIn Water commonS ...