--
>
>
> By Michael Grunwald=20
> Washington Post Staff Writer=20
> Wednesday, January 9, 2002=20
>    The National Academy of Sciences warned today
> that the Missouri River =
> and its ecosystem will continue to deteriorate
> unless its natural flow =
> is significantly restored, calling for "immediate
> and decisive =
> management actions" to shatter a 14-year political
> stalemate.=20
> The academy's report could represent a major
> milestone in a controversy =
> that has taken nearly as many twists as the original
> Big Muddy itself, a =
> controversy that even shut down the U.S. Senate
> briefly last year. The =
> report generally echoed longstanding proposals by
> environmentalists and =
> recreational interests that the channelized river
> should be allowed to =
> run more freely, proposals that are bitterly opposed
> by farmers and the =
> barge industry.=20
> "This report is an affirmation of everything we've
> been saying," crowed =
> Chad Smith, Missouri River coordinator for the group
> American Rivers. =
> "It means the people who talk about restoring the
> river without =
> restoring its flow might as well join the Flat Earth
> Society."=20
> In general, the report argues that the taming of the
> meandering Missouri =
> into a straight and reliable barge channel has been
> awful for its fish =
> and wildlife and has failed to produce the
> navigation benefits that were =
> originally promised. It calls for a new "adaptive
> management" approach =
> to experiment with recreating natural flows
> =E2=80=93 more water in the =
> spring, less water in the summer =E2=80=93 as well
> as off-channel =
> meanders in some portions of the river.=20
> That may sound a bit obscure, but it is one of the
> most furiously =
> debated issues in the Midwest. Farmers have
> complained that a "spring =
> rise" might flood their fields, and barge operators
> have howled that low =
> summer flows would put them out of business. Sen.
> Christopher Bond =
> (R-Mo.) has championed their cause relentlessly
> =E2=80=93 usually =
> through direct confrontations with Senate Majority
> Leader Thomas Daschle =
> (D-S.D.) =E2=80=93 and then-Gov. George W. Bush
> pointedly announced his =
> own opposition to the spring rise during a 2000
> campaign trip to =
> Missouri.=20
> Bond did find one piece of encouraging news in the
> academy's report: It =
> calls for a moratorium on any revisions to the
> manual the Army Corps of =
> Engineers uses to manage the river. In December
> 2000, after the Fish and =
> Wildlife Service ruled that a spring rise and low
> summer flow was needed =
> to avoid the extinction of endangered fish and
> birds, the Corps pledged =
> to revise the manual accordingly. But in August,
> under Bush's =
> administration, the Corps abandoned that commitment,
> much to Bond's =
> delight and Daschle's dismay.=20
> "This recommendation for a moratorium means the
> science behind the Fish =
> and Wildlife Service's dictate just doesn't cut it
> and the government =
> should go back to the drawing board," Bond said in a
> statement.=20
> But scientists on the academy's Missouri River
> Ecosystem Science =
> committee said that is not even remotely what they
> meant. "That's just a =
> red herring," said Larry Hesse, the chief scientist
> for River =
> Ecosystems, Inc. Hesse said the committee was
> concerned that the process =
> of changing the manual had dragged on for more than
> a decade without =
> producing the changes the river needs to recover.
> The report also argued =
> that the process itself has been biased toward
> agriculture and =
> navigation at the expense of conservation and
> recreation.=20
> This morning, Corps officials said they are still
> committed to proposing =
> their new manual in May, and suggested that a spring
> rise is starting to =
> look like the likely option again. Homer Perkins, a
> Corps spokesman, =
> noted that the agency will need to adopt flow
> changes by 2003 to avoid =
> violating the Endangered Species Act.=20
> "This report is a clear victory for supporters of
> sensible management of =
> the Missouri River," Daschle said through a
> spokesman. "The report is =
> clear in its opinion that in order to restore the
> health of the river, a =
> spring rise and low summer flows must be
> restored."=20
> In the 1940s, the federal government was mostly
> concerned with =
> protecting farms and promoting commerce when it
> wrestled the unruly =
> river into a thin and constant channel, slicing off
> 127 miles of hairpin =
> turns, building hundreds of new dams and dikes and
> levees. As the report =
> details, this straightjacket has taken an ecological
> toll, erasing =
> nine-tenth of the Missouri's sandbars and islands.
> Dozens of species =
> have declined, including three endangered ones: the
> pallid sturgeon, =
> which took spawning cues from the spring rise, and
> the piping plover and =
> least tern, which nested on sandbars created by the
> low summer flows.=20
> The report also makes a less predictable point: the
> simplification of =
> the river has taken an economic toll, too.
> Commercial fishing, for =
> example, is at an all-time low. In the 1980s
> droughts, the Corps moved =
> so much water downstream to its barge channel that
> boat-friendly =
> reservoirs behind upper-basin dams virtually
> disappeared; Lake Oahe ran =
> so dry it left North Dakota. A Corps analysis found
> that recreation on =
> the Missouri already provides about 16 times the
> economic benefits of =
> navigation, which has been a perennial
> disappointment; the academy noted =
> that "there is a distinct prospect" that restoring
> natural flows would =
> be justifiable on economic grounds alone.=20
> Still, the report did float a possible compromise.
> It noted that since =
> there is not much scientific data on the result of
> flow changes, it =
> might make sense to experiment in reaches with the
> very least barge =
> traffic instead of implementing a spring rise for
> the entire river. That =
> could mean an extension of the status quo in the
> state of Missouri, =
> where opposition to the spring rise is the
> strongest, while implementing =
> the new regime farther north.=20
> But the bottom line, Hesse said, is that while minor
> projects to restore =
> habitat along the river =E2=80=93 recreating old
> oxbows and sloughs and =
> backwater chutes =E2=80=93 are helpful, they are not
> enough to reverse =
> the decline of one of America's favorite rivers.=20
> "You can restore habitat, but if it's not wet at the
> right times of the =
> year, it's not real habitat," Hesse said. "Our point
> is that we have to =
> let the river create the habitat."=20
>
>
> =C2=A9 2002 The Washington Post Company=20
>
>
>
>    NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C.
> Section 107, this material =
> is distributed without profit to those who have
> expressed a prior =
> interest in receiving this information for research
> and educational =
> purposes.
>
>
>

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