Big Muddy Speaker Series

Presentation by Tom Ball, Sierra Club Missouri River Grassroots Network

Wednesday, Oct. 14, 2015

4:30 p.m. Free Paddle trip with Big Muddy Adventures! (details below)
6. p.m. Meet at Big A’s Restaurant
6:30 p.m. Presentation

At Big A’s Restaurant (in the back room)
308 N Main St. –  St Charles, MO
(directions below)

The US Army Corps of Engineers manages Missouri River flows via a complex set of rules and laws designed to maximize benefits and reduce harms for 8 Congressional authorized purposes:  irrigation, water supply, water quality, hydro power, navigation, flood control, recreation, fish & wildlife. 

Operations and management of the six main-stem dams and the Bank Stabilization & Navigation Program dikes and levees have caused serious reductions of habitat for animal communities. 57 of the 61 native fish species originally found in the Missouri River are now rare or in decline, and there are biological opinions and recovery plans for 3 federally listed species:  pallid sturgeon, least terns and piping plovers. 

The Corps is obligated to correct agency actions that jeopardize continued existence for these threatened and endangered species. The 2003 amended biological opinion called for creation of an Adaptive Management Plan, and the Corps is now preparing an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) that examines alterations of flow for the production and maintenance of Emergent Sandbar and Shallow Water Habitats within constraints specified by the needs of the other authorized purposes. The draft EIS is expected for public comment in spring or summer of 2017.  While the details are still being written, some of the actions being considered are now known. 

Come hear a Sierra Club member discuss Adaptive Management of the Missouri River and answer questions about the Missouri River Recovery Program. What could possibly go wrong?  What is the Corps doing about it? Bring your questions.

Free Paddle Trip with Big Muddy Adventures!

Join expert Missouri River guide Mike Clark of Big Muddy Adventures before the presentation for a up and downstream paddle through downtown St. Charles on the Junebug canoe. Space is limited – PLEASE REGISTER on the Greenway Network website.

Here’s the link to register – fill out your name and the month you want to join the paddle trip: www.greenwaynetwork.org/get-involved/educational-events/big-muddy-speaker-series-paddle-registration.php.

This opportunity brought to you by the generosity of Greenway Network and Big Muddy Adventures. 

Big Muddy Adventures and their handmade Junebug canoe.

Tom Ball is the Stakeholder Member for the Sierra Club Missouri River Grassroots Network on the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC). In that role, he represents environmental & conservation groups and the 24,000 + Sierra Club members in the 8 states contiguous to the Missouri River.

In his day job, he is a landscape technician for Native Landscape Solutions, Inc; and is part of a team that builds and maintains prairies, stormwater ponds, raingardens and other Missouri native plant installations.

Directions

To Big A’s on the Riverfront, our host for the Speaker Series.

To get there from I-70

• Take I-70 to exit 229B – the 5th St. Exit
• Merge onto 5th St. headed north toward St. Charles.
• After about 1 mile, turn right on Monroe St.
• Turn left onto N. Main St.
• Big A’s will be on your right (308 N. Main St.) Additional parking is available in the rear.
• View on Google Maps.