One River – One Problem
Published: August 8, 2012
Original Presentation- “One River – One Problem”- by Tony Messenger, columnist at St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August 8, 2012
photo: Decatur area, photo by Lee Valley Auction.
The Great Flood of 2011 changed the way citizens and leaders look at how we live with the Missouri River. When the flooding began, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ran a series of articles titled “One River, One Problem” calling for states, tribes and stakeholders to come together and develop a sensible plan for management of the Missouri River.
St. Louis Post Dispatch columnist Tony Messenger joined us to discuss his ideas for what needs to happen along the river, what positive steps and missteps politicians are already making on this and why this is important to Missourians. The three main goals outlined in the articles are: creating more room in the floodplain to let the river roam during extreme events, as outlined in the original Flood Control Act of 1944; increasing flood storage capacity in the reservoir system; and reducing development encroachment on the floodplain.
A special thank you to Greg Poleski of Greenway Network for making this happen in St. Charles!
Before the presentation, folks had an opportunity to hop on the Big Junebug canoe with Mike Clark from Big Muddy Adventures for a short paddle through downtown St. Charles.
Warning: Use of undefined constant php - assumed 'php' (this will throw an Error in a future version of PHP) in /home/customer/www/bigmuddyspeakers.org/public_html/wp-content/themes/big-muddy-speakers/content-single.php on line 28
Resources
- “One River, One Problem” homepage for series of St. Louis Post Dispatch articles on Missouri River flood policy.
- Articles by Tony Messenger
- The “Galloway Report” – a special report outlining the lessons of the 1993 flood prepared by the Interagency Floodplain Management Review Committee in 1994. Titled: “Sharing the Challenge” – (272pp, pdf)
A few specific editorials from the series:
- “Congress must get Missouri River foes to work together” – July 18, 2012
- “The Corps gets it right in plan; now it must act” – April 19, 2012
- “Time to give the Missouri River Room to Roam” – October 26, 2011
The Big Muddy Speakers Series in St. Charles
is hosted by these wonderful partners:
- Greenway Network
- Missouri River Relief
- Friends of Big Muddy
- Big Muddy Adventures
- Big Muddy National Fish & Wildlife Refuge
- Big A’s Restaurant
All speakers are presenting for free and Big A’s is sharing the space for free! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with all of us!
The Big Muddy Speaker Series also takes place monthly in Rocheport and Kansas City.
A special thank you to Greenway Networkand Mike Clark of Big Muddy Adventures for making this happen!
