Big Muddy Speaker Series presents:

In a recent evaluation of the Missouri River Basin, the watershed received a C on its report card.  The good news is that its riparian area ecosystems got a C+; but America’s Watershed Initiative indicated that the Missouri River Basin and its riparian ecosystems are facing significant challenges as we move forward toward a healthy river system that harmoniously serves people, communities, wild nature.

Jay Fish, Director of the Campus Honors Environmental Research Project (CHERP) at the University of Missouri - St. Louis, will join us for a deeper look at how we can take on this challenge and the roles we can play as watershed citizens.

The great work of changing from an industrial civilization along our great rivers to an emerging Ecological Civilization will not be accomplished by professional ecologists, river managers, or conservation agency resource managers. The great task of bringing about an ecological civilization will need to engage a much broader section of American society.

A first task for river advocacy networks is to help people think like a river valley and develop Aldo Leopold’s ecological consciousness.  The ability to think like a river valley will enable citizen ecologists to effectively work with river managers and natural resource professionals to image how people, human communities, migrating birds, sturgeon populations, and wild ecosystems can live creatively, dynamically, and harmoniously in the Missouri River Basin.