Loup Generator — Fall 2020

PROTECTING SHOREBIRDS
AT THE GENOA HEADWORKS
In 1985, the number of interior least terns dropped
below 2,000 adults nesting in a few dozen sites along
the Mississippi River.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed it as an
endangered species that May.
The following year, the USFWS named the Northern
Great Plains population of the piping plover a
threatened species.
The birds have had different fates in the last 35 years.
The interior least tern population has rebounded to
18,000 in 18 states and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
is proposing to delist the species.
The Northern Great Plains population of the piping
plover, is still struggling to make a comeback. Their
numbers have declined in some years, but still trend
slightly upward.
Michael Gutzmer, Principal of New Century
Environmental (NCE) in Columbus, said climate
patterns, predation, land use, and human encroachment
are some of the major impediments to stable
populations of these unique shorebirds in our Nebraska
waters.
“The stakes are high and unpredictable in reproductive
success when the birds choose to nest in highly variable
flow conditions like the Loup or Platte Rivers,” he said.
“This may be part of the reason these birds are so rare.”
TERN & PLOVER DECLINE
Protecting wildlife was likely not a consideration in 1933
when the Loup Project grant and loan was announced by
the Public Works Administration.
The Fish and Wildlife Service
was created seven years
later, in 1940. Congress
passed the Endangered
Species Act in 1973.
The first record of
both species was
first recorded in the
1940s. By this time,
many hydroelectric
projects around the
state and country were
complete.
These projects — along with irrigation, development,
and recreation— caused river channels to narrow, and
vegetation to increase. In turn, the number of suitable
nesting sandbars decreased.
Over the years, the birds have expanded their habitat
to include sand pits, lake housing developments, and
reservoir shorelines.
These are not always suitable nesting habitats, however,
considering the amount of human interaction at these
sites.
ATVs and off-road vehicles can crush nests and kill
birds. Because these birds nest on the open ground,
they are more vulnerable to predators like raccoons,
foxes, coyotes, opossums, skunks, river otters, and dogs.
FERC LICENSE MANDATES
For more than 80 years, the District has dredged sand
from the settling basin at the Genoa Headworks.
The two-mile settling basin fills with sediment as
Loup River water enters the canal. It is removed using
a hydraulic dredge and pumped to sand management
areas to the north and south of the canal. This allows
the water to more easily flow through the canal to
powerhouses in Monroe and Columbus.
Until the mid-1980s, dredging began in spring and
continued through the fall. That changed when the
birds were listed as threatened and endangered. At that
time, Loup changed its dredging schedule to protect
them from the sand and slurry that is pumped into their
nesting areas.
Those efforts continue today as mandated in the
District’s federal hydroelectric license, issued in 2017 by
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).
The license requires that Loup cease dredging from
the first sign of nests in June through August to reduce
nest disturbances. Both birds nest by creating shallow
depressions in open sand.
The license requires that Loup monitor the presence
and habitat of the interior least tern, piping plover, and
rufa red knot for at least six years and submit an annual
report documenting all studies. The District is currently
in the third year of that plan, which began in 2018. (To
date, no rufa red knots have been documented at the
Genoa Headworks.)
12 GENERATOR
Piping plover at the Genoa Headworks. Photo by Michael Gutzmer.