Federal Agency Provides Gordon Creek Documents

Following a Freedom of Information Request on January 26 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency initially provided a single document on March 25th, that was an agreement with the official signatures of the parties involved with a wetland project along Gordon creek in central Cherry county.

A reply provided via email to the agency on March 28th, however denoted several known FWS documents which had not been provided through the FOIA process. Ancillary sources had indicated these additional project-related documents.

The agency then conducted an “additional search for responsive documents,” as indicated in an April 14, 2016 letter of response for request FWS-2016-00392, based upon agency records.

This eventual reply was first received by email, and then via a postal delivery of a dvd disc with more than twenty documents.

Most prominent was an updated addendum to landowner agreement NE-64850-14-71 for payment of final project costs, totaling $237,072.32, according signatures made in December 2015. Portions of the funds paid by the Sandhills Task Force were through money received from grant 12-134 as received from the Nebraska Environmental Trust. The $100,000 provided by the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission was from a state wildlife grant, as provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The primary source of money was the Sandhills Task Force, as the majority of the money was indicated as this NGO being the source, according to the document. The landowner still provided $40,000.

Numerous other federal documents provided included:

• A variety of emails, as redacted, mostly in regards to site visits; includes an email indicating that a seed mix to be used “was developed to be successful on wetland and upland areas and is designed with monarch and pollinator habitat in mind”
  
• an Attachment A - Detailed description of project activities (additional details for Block 18 and Block 22 on the permit form).
  
• an Attachment B - Engineering Design plans prepared by Bob Atkeson, of the Natural Resources Conservation Service.
  
• an Attachment C - Wetland certification/delineation report and supplemental maps prepared by Chuck Markley, NRCS.
  
• an Attachment D - Wetland delineation polygons overlain on the project plan map, prepared by Ted LaGrange, wetlands biologist for the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission.
  
• an Attachment E - Nebraska Stream Condition Assessment Procedure (NeSCAP) narrative and calculation spreadsheet prepared by Ritch Nelson, NRCS.
  
• an Attachment F - Landowner agreement NE-64850-14-71 signed by the landowner and the project funding partners.
  
• an Attachment G - NEPA compliance checklist prepared by the USFWS.
  
• an Attachment H - Section 7 Biological Memo and Evaluation Form, and a Supplemental Memo regarding effects on American burying beetle prepared by the USFWS
  
• an Attachment I - State Nongame and Endangered Species Conservation Act (NESCA) review prepared by Michelle Koch, NGPC
  
• an Attachment J - Cultural resource review prepared by Margaret Van Ness, USFWS
  

Also included were:

• an application for a Department of the Army permit
  
• a letter from the Sandhills Task Force to the Army Corps of Engineers office in Omaha, dated December 2014, indicating that the project partners would “proceed with the described soil, water, and stream habitat improvement project activities as described without further individual project consultation with USACE.” Eventually the ACE would issue a nationwide permit, via their Omaha regulatory office in early June 2015.
  
• a project timeline
  

The documents and correspondence were the “final response” from the agency, which provided the information without any dollar payment required.

In their seeming entirety, these documents do convey the breadth of this project, the entities involved and what was necessary for this project along Gordon Creek to be accomplished.

NRCS Avoids Public Disclosure of Project Documentation

The Nebraska office of the Natural Resources Conservation Service has indicated it will not provide information associated with a wetlands project along Gordon creek in central Cherry county, Nebraska.

Despite Freedom of Information Act request 2016-NRCS-02453-F made to the NRCS office in Lincoln, no details were provided. A letter indicated that no documents would be provided due to “Exemption 3” of the FOIA act which prohibits - through federal statute 7 U.S.C. 8791, Section 1619 (b) of the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-246) – “prohibits disclosure of information of information regarding another person’s agricultural operations, farming, conservation practices, or the land itself.”

This is despite the expenditure of public funds associated with the agency work designing the project and associated consultation.

What is quite revealing is that despite the response of this agency, is that the very details requested are publicly available elsewhere. The NRCS obviously has a nondisclosure policy.

It took multiple requests via email to even get this NRCS indicated “adverse” decision. The initial request was made January 22nd, 2016 and the letter of response was received on April 7th.

Gordon Creek Restoration Project, Cherry County

A partnership project along Gordon Creek in central Cherry county has restored historic channel features with a benefit to adjacent wetlands.

The project is located near Aljo Hill and on the Spikebox Ranch, a Sandhills Ranch property owned by R.E. Turner. Other partners in the already completed project were the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission, Sandhills Task Force and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Natural Resources Conservation Service did the delineation of wetlands and established design details.

The project evaluation and design and overall consultation by partners occurred during a twenty month period, with official consent signatures by the landowner and agencies occurring during the latter part of 2014, according to primary specifics available within an Army Corps of Engineers document, as received through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The work reverted the creek from its channelized condition to its original, historic channel with its meanders, permanent flow and adjacent wetlands.

The project involved waterway meanders and length, increasing 5750 feet of Gordon Creek to a length of 42,300 feet, by placing 22,456 cubic yards of fill into existing channel to redirect the water flow into the historic channel alignment, as well as excavating 16,920 cubic yards of material within the historic channel to facilitate water flow. Existing drainage ditches were also filled, with berms placed where needed. Stream crossings for vehicles were also changed.

A grade stabilization structure was also built at the eastern end of the project to inhibit stream-bed degradation. Concrete block mat and turf reinforcing mat was also installed for ground stabilization purposes.

The indicated project cost was $215,000. Funding sources were $100,000 from the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission through a state wildlife grant received from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; $60,000 from the Sandhills Task Force as provided through a grant from the Nebraska Environmental Trust; $40,000 from landowner R.E. (Ted) Turner; and, $15,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Monitoring reports are required through 2020 to ensure that goals stated in the Corps of Engineers permit are met. A permit for project construction was issued in June, 2015 after Section 404 consultation with the Sandhills Ranch Properties of Turner Enterprises, Inc. The NGPC submitted the permit application.

Additional FOIA requests for project details as submitted in mid-January to the Natural Resources Conservation Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have not resulted in receiving any project documentation from either agency, as of March 1st.