News Release
| Release Number: | 06-002 |
| Dated: | 1/23/2006 |
| Contact: | Paul T Johnston, 402-697-2552 |
OMAHA – Construction crews and teams of scientists will be busy on the Missouri River this spring building habitat, modernizing hatcheries and conducting population and habitat studies of endangered fish and birds.
The Army Corps of Engineers was appropriated more than $54 million this year as part of an energetic recovery effort for protected species along the entire length of the Missouri River. The work above Sioux City, Iowa, will focus on building sandbar habitat for least terns and piping plovers and monitoring adult populations and nesting success. Work below Sioux City will focus on acquiring and building shallow water habitat for pallid sturgeon, hatchery improvements and monitoring populations and reproduction success. While aimed at these protected species, other native fish and birds will benefit from the newly developed nesting and spawning habitat.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for the Missouri River basin,” said Brig. Gen. Gregg Martin, Northwestern Division Engineer. “This level of funding allows us to not just comply with the Endangered Species Act, but gives us a good start on the path to recovery for these species. We will build habitat, modernize hatcheries, and monitor the responses of the birds and fish and then refocus our efforts on what works best. At the same time, we will continue to fulfill our Tribal trust and treaty responsibilities and meet all of our project purposes of flood damage reduction, navigation, hydropower, irrigation, recreation, water supply, water quality and fish and wildlife.”
Much of the Missouri River has been turned into reservoirs behind six large dams or straightened and armored to serve the purposes authorized by Congress. More than a million acres of land were buried by the reservoirs, much of it sacred to Native American tribes. Another half million acres of fish and bird habitat were “traded” for farmland when the river was channelized from St. Louis to Sioux City.
More than 200 work items this year will focus on:
- Notching dikes along the river in Missouri, Nebraska, Iowa and Kansas to create shallow water habitat for pallid sturgeon
- Modifying chutes and backwaters in Missouri, Iowa and Nebraska
- Modernizing federal and state hatcheries in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota and Missouri to partially offset the current lack of natural sturgeon reproduction
- Building sandbar habitat for terns and plovers in Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
- Comprehensive study of sturgeon population and habitat and monitoring - Studies of sturgeon response to the spring pulses
- Tern and plover population census
- Virginia Polytechnical Institute plover forage study
- Shallow water habitat biological and physical monitoring
- Tribal cultural site protection and habitat development projects in South Dakota and North Dakota
The establishment of the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee is also expected this year. The committee will be made up of representatives of federal, tribal and state agencies as well as a wide variety of special interest groups. It will make recommendations to the federal agencies on how to proceed with recovery of the protected species using the monitoring and evaluation results while being mindful of the impacts on the other authorized purposes.
For state-by-state information on fish and wildlife recovery efforts, please check the following website: https://www.nwd.usace.army.mil/pa/