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When Meriwether Lewis and William Clark dragged and poled their
boats up the Missouri River in 1804, they found a river teeming with fish
and wildlife. The Missouri River that the Lewis and Clark expedition saw was
a wide, braided river in the stretch that now forms the eastern border of
Nebraska. Meandering across a wide valley, the river had a mix of backwaters
and sloughs, sandbars, and deeper faster-moving channels that together made
the river an enormously productive fishery.
This rich and varied aquatic habitat was
bounded by wetlands and bottomland forest that provided habitat on land. Flocks of birds large enough
to darken the sky followed the river's path. For thousands of years, the
Missouri River provided habitat for fish and wildlife, which in turn
supported the Native American tribes who lived along the river. |
The Corps of Engineers held scoping
meetings in Nebraska in June, July and August to take public comments on the
Corps' study of authorized purposes of the Pick-Sloan project dams. The
comment period ends September 20, 2010.
Submit your comments
online here.
Join us in asking the Corps to
put a higher priority on fish, wildlife and recreation in its management of
the Missouri River. See our
Action
Alert here.
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worth of work to straighten and channelize the river and remove snags caused
fish populations and the commercial fishery to collapse.
The Missouri River has been the victim of two
centuries of work to turn this once wide, braided river into a barge canal,
to allow a handful of barges to haul goods that could move by truck or
railroad. Small dams on tributaries block fish spawning runs. Productive habitat along the Lower
Platte faces intense development pressure from Omaha and |
The pallid sturgeon is now on the
federal Endangered Species list because so few are left.
US Fish & Wildlife Service photo. |
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Lincoln.
The Missouri also faces pollution problems.
High levels of fecal coliform bacteria, Dieldrin (once used as an
insecticide), and PCBs (once used in electric transformers and as a coolant)
have been found in the Missouri River and some key tributaries like
Papillion Creek.
Managing the Missouri
The United States Corps of Engineers built and
operates some of the largest dams in the world on the Missouri River,
including Fort Peck (Montana), Garrison (North Dakota), Oahe, Big Bend and
Fort Randall (South Dakota), and Gavins Point (on the Nebraska-South Dakota
border). These dams capture the historic high spring flows that once
triggered fish to spawn. The Corps releases water in the summer to support
barge traffic below Sioux City, and to ensure water used for drinking water
systems (Omaha) and to cool powerplants and industries along the river.
In 2010, the Corps of Engineers is held dozens
of
scoping meetings to take public comment on its Authorized Purposes Study.
Congress asked the Corps to study the eight official authorized purposes of
the Corps' operation of Missouri River dams (flood control, hydropower,
irrigation, water supply, navigation, water quality, fish & wildlife, and
recreation), and consider whether any changes to existing purposes are
warranted.
Nebraska Wildlife Federation believes
that fish, wildlife and recreation, while officially authorized purposes of
the Corps management, have been given lower priority historically in dam
operations than other uses. We believe the Corps and Congress should
recognize the economic and environmental benefits of changing the management
of the Missouri River to boost fish, wildlife and recreation.
Dr. Marian Maas, NEWF Board Member and Past
President, helps represent conservation interests on the Missouri River
Recovery Implementation Committee, which is coordinating efforts to begin to
restore Missouri River habitat and flows.
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