Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

The Big Muddy National Fish and Wildlife Refuge is comprised of 11 separate units totaling approximately 17,500 acres located along the Missouri River floodplain between Kansas City and the St. Louis area. The Refuge, begun in the aftermath of the flood of 1993, is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Using a passive management model, these “pearls on a string” include chutes, islands, wet prairies, bottomland forests, scour holes and lakes and areas that are allowed to flood in high water.

The St. Louis metro area has two units of the refuge, Boone’s Crossing and Cora Island, yet few people in the public realize this amazing resource is at their back door. Refuge Biologist Wedge Watkins will share some of latest developments on the refuge, some exciting habitat projects coming up and new refuge acquisitions.

Here's some of what you can expect to hear about:

• New refuge units - Berger Bend Unit near Hermann, a 474 acre shallow backwater complex and a floodplain scour hole lake, is added. New acreage is added to Baltimore Bend Unit.
• Upcoming habitat projects - Work should begin this winter on a restoring a complex of chutes and islands at Cora Island Unit of the refuge, near the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers. Other upcoming habitat projects at Baltimore Bend and Cranberry Bend Units.
• Completed - Jameson Island Chute extension completed near Arrow Rock.