ABSTRACT
The Platte River of central Nebraska is a braided stream draining 223,000 km2 of the High Plains and Rocky Mountains. Formed by the confluence of the North Platte and South Platte rivers, the Platte River flows 500 km eastward across the state to join the Missouri River near Omaha. The river has played a key role in the economic development of the region, with its valley serving as part of the storied Oregon Trail, as part of the route of the first transcontinental railroad, and as the location of about 500,000 ha of irrigated agriculture. The river also provides habitat for whooping cranes (and other species not discussed here), an endangered bird species. The fundamental issue in the management and use of the river is how to resolve the conflict between demands on the river resource for water supply and for support of imperiled species.[1]
The root of the conflict over water resources along the Platte River is a difference in philosophical perspectives on water: first, water as a commodity, and second, water as an ecosystem component. For most of the past century and a half, society has viewed the river as a conduit for water as a commodity, with all of the discharge of the river assigned to users with legally vested water rights. To exercise these rights, water users and government agencies have constructed an elaborate water-control infrastructure, including dams and diversion works that control the flow of the river. The flows, in turn, have resulted in geomorphic and riparian vegetation adjustments. The decline in the whooping crane population was partly the result of continent-wide influences such as habitat destruction and hunting,[2] but the shrinking population of whooping crane was particularly noticeable along the Platte River. Recognition of the important role of the river in health of wildlife populations led to a more recent perspective on its water as an ecosystem component. While changes in water flows have had detrimental effects, the water-control infrastructure also offers opportunities through regulation of the flow to restore some of the ecosystem functions and to enhance crane habitat.
