Missouri River Futures
P.O. Box 46
102 E Elm St.
Hartington, NE 68739
402-254-6858 ext. 114


Missouri River News Sources

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
Projects and Activities
2009 Missouri River Watershed Festival (more...)
2009 Landowner Conservation Workshop (more...)

 

MRF Projects

Theresa has been involved with various educational efforts including the 1st annual  Missouri River Festival held May 8, 2009 in Yankton, South Dakota.  She had been working mainly on behalf of Nebraska’s interests but assisted with all stage of planning.  This festival is fashioned after ones conducted by Missouri River Relief on the Lower Missouri.  There were 10 stations at Riverside Park, each with different demonstrations by different agencies.  It was a successful event in 2009 and look forward to repeating the event in 2010 at the request of the participants!

Theresa has been working with the South Dakota State Forestry Department trying to learn more about a grant secured to assist with planting cottonwood trees and other riparian trees along the Missouri River.  We are nearly 12 months into a 3-year grant but part of the match was lost for technical support. 

WREP (Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program) was newly authorized to be extended along the Missouri River in Nebraska up to but not including South Dakota.  Theresa has been the leader of coordinating outreach and direct mailing, organizing public informational meetings, and directly working with applicants and determining eligibility.  The interest has been high and has been a large workload.  Theresa is also assisting with WRP applications in the other Wild & Scenic River stretches along the Niobrara River and Verdigris Creek.  These two programs have been the best opportunities for lucrative easements along the Missouri River enhancing wildlife values, providing recreation and protecting floodplain and in cases bluff areas from development. 

Theresa has been working on behalf of a couple of landowners in South Dakota with three very large trees the owners are very proud of.  Wondering if they would meet state record specifications, Theresa contacted those associated with the SD Big Tree Registry and helped arrange a field visit to measure the trees.  The first cottonwood has been measured and it may be too small (relative term…it’s a BIG tree!), but another visit was needed to measure what we thought was an American Elm.  This ended up being a Siberian Elm and may be the biggest in SD.  Have the other cottonwood to measure yet when the landowner has time.

The Missouri River Cottonwood Management plan is gaining momentum and Theresa assisted the team by contacting landowners for permission to access the existing stands to generate a baseline data set of vegetation.   Trends were established using historical data.  The plan looks at current recruitment of cottonwood trees and factors past & present affecting all age classes.  This plan receives it’s impetus from the continued protection of the American Bald Eagle and consequently the very large cottonwood trees needed to support the approximately 2000 lb. nest. 

Theresa has been involved with the Nebraska Conservation Tree Working Group which was created to promote tree planting practices which has declined in recent years due to several factors.  Several informational pieces and websites on the benefits of trees have been listed and available as well as available cost-share opportunities for windbreaks, field borders, thickets, etc. has been assembled.  They have been trying to have a booth at key farm and home shows plus have been putting out a series of news releases on a regular basis.  Grants have been applied for to gain funds offering additional cost-share for tree plantings within the NRD’s. 

Theresa has been assisting with efforts to develop a formalized water trail along the MNRR (Missouri National Recreational River).  This summer saw the kickoff of these efforts with the launch of a water trail website and a kick-off float event attended by 87 paddlers. 

 

 

In addition to conducting or assisting with events such as those listed above, Missouri River Futures assists other organizations with activities in various ways. Contacting landowners regarding access to their land for research or staging operations, as well as taking part in easement discussions are examples of how MRF assists with these activities. In some cases, MRF provides assistance with field work activities. Following are some examples of activities that MRF participates in with other organizations.

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program (WREP)

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service in Nebraska expanded the opportunity for landowners along the Missouri River to enroll land in the WREP (Wetland Reserve Enhancement Program) to include the Missouri National Recreational River.  In 2004 Nebraska NRCS became the first state in the country to receive funds for the new WREP Wetland Reserve Program (WRP) for purpose of restoring wetlands along the Missouri River Floodplain.  The geographic region initially targeted with those funds included the floodplain along the Missouri River from Ponca, NE down to Rulo, NE.  In December 2008 the geographic boundary was extended to now include the Nebraska side of the Missouri River from Ponca, upstream to where the river crosses into South Dakota. 

Coordinator Theresa Smydra (on behalf of Missouri River Futures and NRCS) lead an informational campaign with public meetings in Niobrara and Newcastle, a series of private mailings to ALL (nearly 400) landowners within a mile of the river, and personal farm visits.  As a result of these efforts, the counties of Knox, Cedar, and Dixon counties submitted 55 applications to the NRCS state office in Lincoln entailing over 7000 acres.  This process is ongoing with the current application funding for 2009 and developing new applications coming in for 2010.

This is a great program that offers a lot of opportunities for resource issues and provides landowners with the financial incentives and restoration possibilities they have been requesting. 

 

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

Restoration Plan

The Missouri River Ecosystem Restoration Plan (MRERP) will provide an overall, comprehensive plan through a collaborative setting that coordinates Missouri River programs under one holistic plan. It will identify management actions to restore sustainable ecosystem functions, mitigate losses and restore and prevent future declines of terrestrial and aquatic habitat and species while seeking to balance social, economic and cultural values by identifying a comprehensive set of goals, objectives, opportunities and strategies for consistent application of ecological principles to Missouri River Programs, including consideration of adaptive management processes. Ultimately, the MRERP will establish criteria and priorities for restoration and provide a vision for the Missouri River Recovery Program.

Cottonwood Management Plan

The purpose of the Cottonwood Habitat Program is to develop a cottonwood management plan. The goal of the plan is to be a living document that preserves, creates, or enhances cottonwood habitat along the Missouri River.

Emergent Sandbar Habitat (ESH)

The ESH Program builds sandbars for species like the least tern and piping plover. Sandbars can be created and maintained by mechanically building new areas, clearing existing sandbars of vegetation or modifying river flows during the year. To balance habitat restoration with the river's other uses, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) is currently using construction methods rather than manipulating river flow levels.

More information can be found on the Missouri River Recovery Program web site.


Missouri River Institute, University of South Dakota

Assessment of Missouri River Backwaters

Natural and created backwaters adjacent to the river are being monitored to determine the benefits to the river ecosystem. Three created and two natural backwaters are being sampled several times per year. Water quality, plant and animal species, and hydrology are included in the sampling plan for these backwaters.

Assessment of Historic Land Cover Change and Cottonwood Age Structure along the Missouri National Recreational River

This project is assessing the current status, past changes, and future trajectories of cottonwood forests along eight Missouri River segments, including six determined to be of moderate to high priority for the Bald Eagle. Key components of the project include: (1) use of GIS with current and historical imagery to quantify floodplain land cover, historic change, and present-day cottonwood area and age distribution and (2) vegetation sampling to assess species composition and structure across a gradient of ages of remnant cottonwood stands. Using analyses of historic land cover change, in conjunction with vegetation sampling, this project will forecast future changes in cottonwood forest area, composition, and age structure within the historic Missouri River floodplain.

Bow Creek Watershed Endocrine Disruptor Compound Study

This project is sampling sites in the Bow Creek watershed to determine the potential impact of endocrine disruptor compounds originating in the Bow Creek watershed on the Missouri River. This is a collaborative project with the University of Nebraska - Omaha.

Species composition and abundance of turtles within the 59-Mile District of the Missouri National Recreational River

Within the Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) turtle populations are impacted by a number of factors which include limited access to nesting sites due to bank erosion, river bed degradation, and bank stabilization projects; flooding of nest sites, encroachment of nesting habitats by vegetation, overall reductions of suitable nesting habitat, and increased predation pressure related to high concentrations of nests within available areas. This mark-recapture study is investigating the habitat relationships, species composition, age structure, sex ratios, and abundance of turtle populations on the 59-mile segment of the MNRR.

More information can be found on the Missouri River Institute research web page.


MNRR Water Trail

A water trail planning group comprised of several federal, state, local, and non-profit organizations has been formed. This group is working to establish a formal water trail along the Missouri River from Gavin's Point Dam near Yankton, SD, to Sioux City, IA. This water trail will encompass the entire 59-mile segment of the Missouri National Recreational River, as well as an additional 20 river miles from Ponca, NE to Sioux City, IA. The 39-mile segment of the MNRR will be added to this water trail in the future.

The group's activities include improving public access to the river, compiling float trip information, creating informational brochures and signs, and building an interactive web site that can be used to plan float trips.

More information can be found on the MNRR Water Trail website.