Missouri River Focus Area - Archive

Archive: Missouri River Focus Area

Last updated: May 21, 2001

Background

The Missouri River is 2,315 miles long. Its basin covers 529,300 square miles and drains one-sixth of the United States (including 74 percent of the upper Mississippi River Basin). It includes all of Nebraska and portions of Montana, Wyoming, North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Colorado, Kansas and Missouri.

The basin is an extremely important producer of the nation's, and the world's, food supply. The basin possesses significant hardwood and softwood timber resources. Metallic and non-metallic minerals and energy fuel resources are important factors in the basin's economic growth. Energy fuels constitute the largest and most valuable share of all non-renewable resources produced in the basin. Manufacturing activities are varied, but largely reflect the economic predominance of agriculture in the basin.

The basin is well endowed with surface and ground water resources. However, the occurrence and availability of water is highly variable, subjecting portions to recurrent local and seasonal shortages. A number of major reservoirs with multi-purpose functions including irrigation, flood control, hydroelectric power generation, navigation, recreation, and fish and wildlife enhancement exist within the basin.

Activities

Agencies are currently collecting information on wildlife, recreation, air quality and cultural resources. Studies are being conducted on fisheries, endangered or threatened species, riparian vegetation, topography, geology and paleontology, hydrology, stream morphology, soils, and abandoned mining lands restoration. Actions are also being taken to build "consensus groups" and to create Memorandums of Under-standing in order to foster effective resource management.

On-The-Ground Project

The Missouri River Basin Interagency Roundtable (MRBIR) has launched the development of the "Discover a Watershed: The Missouri" project. This is a watershed education initiative focusing on the Missouri River Basin. The project will result in the publication and distribution of a Reference and Activity Guide for Educators as well as a Student Activity Booklet; and also will develop and distribute a Lewis and Clark Expedition Bicentennial Event Planning Kit. These publications are scheduled for completion during Spring, 2002. These materials are designed educate primarily school-aged children, but potentially others as well, in diverse aspects of the Missouri River Basin.

This project is being funded by the MRBIR, a consortium of federal re-source management agencies dedicated to improving interagency communications and cooperation, reducing unnecessary duplication, and enhancing the effectiveness of these agencies' resource management capabilities within the Missouri River Basin.

Partners

Missouri River Basin Interagency Roundtable, Missouri River Natural Resources Committee, Missouri River Basin Association, Mni Sose Intertribal Water Rights Coalition, Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association, Missouri River Corridor Alliance, Western Governors' Association, Missouri River Coalition (American Rivers), Friends groups of various National Wildlife Refuges, Mid-America Land Cover Consortium, Upper Missouri Water User's Association, Missouri River Communities Network, units of local and state government, and ordinary citizens.

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