Executive summary · how the work cascades

Investment → Land & Water → Habitat → Species response

The Program's logic chain at a glance: dollars secure land and water; land and water build habitat; habitat is what the three target species respond to. Each card pulls live numbers from the section below.

The money
Spent
Inputs
Land
Water
Outputs
Nesting
Roosting
Outcomes
Plover
Whooping crane
How the money flows
01

Spending

Where the money has gone, year by year, and how cumulative actual expenditures compare to the inflation-adjusted budget and indexed cash ceiling.

Cumulative spending
Pace vs indexed budget
Cash ceiling headroom
Annual expenditure by category
$M · stacked bars · Admin, Land, Water, Science · actuals 2007–2025
Cumulative actual vs expected expenditures (indexed for inflation)
$M · all categories combined · expected = original estimated expenditures indexed by USBR General Property Index, plus First Increment + Extension cash ceiling
Admin & Science
$M · Admin + Science
Land
$M
Water
$M

Inflation index is the USBR General Property Index applied per workbook; factor resets to 1.000 in 2020 (Extension base year). Actual expenditures are nominal year-of-spend dollars; expected expenditures are the original program estimate restated into each year's dollars, so the two are directly comparable. Single-year actuals can run well above or below estimate because land and water acquisitions are lumpy capital outlays. Estimated expenditures for 2026–2032 are inflated at 3% per year.

Land and habitat outputs
02

Habitat

What the Program built and is maintaining — land acquisitions, river miles managed, managed OCSW nesting habitat, and whooping crane habitat suitability.

Land held vs FI target
OCSW habitat vs SDM target
Increase in river miles highly suitable
West of Kearney
East of Kearney
Cumulative land held
Acres · stacked by category · 2008–2025 (no acquisitions in 2025) · dashed line marks the 10,000 ac First Increment Land Objective
Managed OCSW nesting habitat
Acres · PRRIP and Other · actuals 2007–2025, estimated 2026–2032 · dashed line marks the 210 ac total SDM habitat target

The 210 ac target was set by the Program's 2016 SDM process — roughly 60 ac above the habitat that existed at the time. The program-wide total (PRRIP + Other) first crossed it in 2021. Future years (2026–2032) are estimated based on current PRRIP lands being mined to create habitat.

Miles of river managed
Cumulative river miles · West + East · 2008–2025 (no change in 2025)
Mean unobstructed channel width · PRRIP-managed river
Feet · West and East of Kearney · visual 2007–2018, eCognition 2019–2024 · dashed line marks the 650 ft suitability threshold
Proportion of reach highly suitable for whooping cranes
Total reach · visual classification 2007–2018, eCognition 2019–2024

Highly suitable habitat is defined as unobstructed channel widths ≥ 650 ft. Two methods are shown back-to-back: visual classification (dashed, retired after 2018) and eCognition object-based classification (solid, 2019 onward). The 2017–2018 eCognition values have been retired so the two series do not overlap.

Proportion of PRRIP-managed river highly suitable
≥ 650 ft · West and East of Kearney · visual 2007–2018, eCognition 2019–2024

PRRIP-managed transects (n = 186; 69 West of Kearney, 117 East). Visual aerial-photo MUCW for 2007–2018; eCognition object-based MUCW for 2019–2024 — matches the methodology break in the basin-wide chart at left, so the two charts are directly comparable.

Methodology noteDuring 2020–2025, mechanical in-channel management (disking) was intentionally reduced to isolate and assess the effectiveness of germination-suppression flow releases. Some of the apparent post-2020 decline in mean channel width and proportion highly suitable reflects reduced management effort.
Program water portfolio
03

Water

The Program's water portfolio — the full set of supply and conservation alternatives considered, the projects now scoring toward the Water Milestone across storage, recharge, and recapture, and the year-by-year ledger of the Environmental Account.

WAP projects considered
Operational annual water
5-yr avg annual releases
Water Action Plan · the breadth of alternatives explored
Every water-supply and conservation alternative the Program has considered or evaluated — from the 2000 Reconnaissance-Level WAP and the 2008 Water Management Study through the 2024 GC update — grouped into eight project families and colored by what became of it.

One tile = one distinct project or alternative (81 in all). The 3 initial state water projects (Lake McConaughy EA, Pathfinder EA, Tamarack I) and 7 parent-concept headers in the source workbook are excluded as Program context.

Annual PRRIP water by project · score and controllability
Acre-feet scored annually toward Water Milestone · 15 projects · grouped by scoring status and operational status
Total annual score AF
Controllable
Operational (approved + estimated)
Controllable (storage water + recapture; PRRIP can direct the timing) Not controllable (groundwater recharge — timing set by underlying aquifer)
EA water · accruals, releases, seepage, end-of-year balance
Acre-feet · 2007–2024 (2025 not yet reported)

Releases include species-targeted pulses (e.g., germination-suppression flows beginning 2020). End-of-year balance is the NET column running balance carried forward each year. Year strip above the chart shows the annual hydrologic condition per platteriverprogram.org: Wet · Normal · Dry.

EA water reaching Grand Island by month · FI vs Extension
Annual-avg AF · Grand Island gage · First Increment vs Extension

The seasonal pattern shifted between eras: FI (amber) peaked in April; Extension (teal) is dominated by June germination-suppression flows. FI annual avg ≈ 35K AF/yr; Extension annual avg ≈ 56K AF/yr.

Species response
04

Species

Breeding effort, productivity, and whooping crane use on the Associated Habitat Reach.

5-yr avg breeding pairs
Plover
Tern
5-yr avg fledglings
Plover
Tern
5-yr avg cranes on AHR
Spring
Fall
5-yr avg use-days on AHR
Spring
Fall
Piping plover
Off-channel breeding pairs (bars) · fledglings (dots) + OLS trend · 2007–2025
Interior least tern
Off-channel breeding pairs (bars) · fledglings (dots) + OLS trend · 2007–2025
Whooping crane use · cranes by season
Spring + fall counts on the AHR · stacked bars · 2007–2025
Proportion of AWBP using the AHR
Spring + fall · % of Aransas–Wood Buffalo Population · 2007–2025