The Nebraska Field Office is one of the oldest Ecological Services field offices in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, established in 1948 as part of the Missouri River Basin Studies.  The Nebraska Field Office provides biological advice to other federal and state agencies, industry, and members of the public concerning the conservation of fish and wildlife and their habitats. Conservation activities include protecting federally threatened and endangered species and their ecosystems, providing recommendations for ways to avoid, minimize, or compensate for harmful impacts to fish and wildlife resources and their habitats, and investigating the effects of contaminants on fish and wildlife.  The Nebraska Field Office also has primary responsibility for maintaining the Service’s Cooperative Whooping Crane Tracking Project and facilitating the recovery of the Platte River Basin by supporting the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program (PRRIP). 

The PRRIP is a unique landscape conservation strategy that was developed pursuant to an agreement between the governors of Colorado, Wyoming, and Nebraska and the U.S. Secretary of the Interior.  Established in January 2007, the objectives of the PRRIP are to support recovery of four federally-listed species, the whooping crane, interior least tern, piping plover, and pallid sturgeon, while enabling existing and new water uses in the tri-state, Platte River Basin. The PRRIP utilizes an adaptive management framework in the major components of the Program, which include land acquisition and restoration and water conservation and acquisition. Implementation of all components of the PRRIP require prior approval of the Governance Committee, comprised of representatives from each of the three states, Bureau of Reclamation, Fish and Wildlife Service, and local water users and environmental organizations. The Governance Committee selected an Executive Director from the private sector to manage implementation of the PRRIP. The Service provides technical assistance and acts as an advisory participant to the PRRIP.  For more information about the PRRIP, go to http://platteriverprogram.org.