Big Muddy Speaker Series

As we enter the 21st Century three major concerns have emerged: climate change and impacts, food insecurity, and homeland security including infrastructure, navigation, and water supplies. All three themes run throughout this research presentation.

Each Great River in North America is a case study from which much can be learned from past catastrophic events to better plan for the future. Previous short documentaries focus on the Missouri River and tributaries including the Platte and the Yellowstone rivers, how their confluence creates something far greater than the sum of their flows and the bottomlands that are sources of wealth and risk to those whose lives are intertwined with the rivers. They illustrate managing the river when it exceeds flood stage; dredging in drought to assure a navigable channel; and earthen levees, floodwalls, dikes and weirs and reservoirs engineered to tame the great rivers and its tributaries for human uses.

Collectively these case studies portray the multi-functional value of the rivers and human attempts to manage rivers and their bottomlands under intensified agricultural uses, changing settlement patterns, and shifting social values.

There is a need for the Mississippi River Commission and the USACE to develop a Missouri River and tributary plan similar to their lower Mississippi River and tributaries plan to address the Missouri River flooding and navigation issues. Such a plan is possible if the northern states adjacent to the Missouri River are willing to contribute and participate in the development of the management plan. This plan is essential to address the current waterway infrastructure restoration issues. The need for a comprehensive plan will be made by presenting case studies on the Missouri and tributaries including the navigation and sedimentation challenges.

Kenneth is Professor Emeritus of Soil Science, Department of NRES, College of ACES, at UI at Champaign-Urbana. He received his B.S. and M.S. from Ohio State University and his Ph.D. from Cornell University and has been an Assistant, Associate, Full and Emeritus Professor in NRES at the UIUC since 1983.