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The League partnered with state and federal agencies and local organizations on several successful Missouri River events in the Yankton area this spring. These events provide opportunities for people of all ages to learn about the river, native fish and wildlife, outdoor recreation opportunities, and other conservation issues. Missouri River Watershed Festival: The 10th annual Missouri River Watershed School Festival was held May 3 in Riverside Park along the Missouri River. Nearly 500 high school students from Nebraska and South Dakota attended (up from 400 students last year). League staff helped organize and coordinate 18 hands-on presentations to teach youth about caring for local natural resources. Planning is already under way for next year’s festival, scheduled for May 2, 2019. Missouri River Clean-up: The 15th annual Yankton Area Missouri River Clean-up was held May 5. About 115 volunteers collected more than a half ton of litter, trash, and debris along the Missouri River. High releases of water from Gavins Point Dam covered many of the usually exposed river banks and sandbars, limiting the areas volunteers could reach. Despite the high river stage, the cleanup was a great success, making the river cleaner and healthier for people and fish and wildlife. The 2019 Yankton Area Missouri River Clean-up will be held on May 4. Invasive Species Awareness: The 10th annual Missouri River Invasive Species Awareness Event is under way and will continue into June. Through this event, League staff and members educate thousands of boaters and anglers how to halt the spread of aquatic invasive species, including zebra mussels and Asian carp. Recreationists learn the three simple steps to stop invasives: clean, drain, and dry all equipment every time they come off the water. Invasive species threaten native species by disrupting the food chain and taking over habitat needed by native fish and plants. Zebra mussels even affect water intakes at power plants and water treatment facilities. You can learn more about invasive species on the League website. Lake Yankton Outdoor Festival: The Lake Yankton Outdoor Festival and Homestead Day, which League staff again helped plan, is coming up on June 9. The festival, held on the Missouri National Recreational River, will include activities that encourage families to get involved in the outdoors and river-related recreation. Cool, rainy weather did not deter people from enjoying outdoor skills at the 12th annual Fort Kearny Outdoor Expo on May 12 near Kearney, Nebraska. The expo provided hands-on activities, including kayaking, fishing, bow fishing, archery, and shooting sports. The League’s Nebraska Division had a booth at the event again this year. Nebraska Ikes and League staff spoke with hundreds of attendees about the League’s Clean Water Challenge, Missouri River recovery, ways to prevent the spread of invasive species, and other conservation issues. We also helped kids and adults build over 400 bird feeders out of plastic beverage bottles – an activity that teaches the importance of recycling and how people can make a difference by feeding birds in their yard. For many people, the expo is their first exposure to the Izaak Walton League. Members of the League’s Sioux Falls Chapter and League staff talked about the importance of clean water at the Big Sioux Water Festival on May 15. This was the 26th annual festival and the largest to date, with nearly 1,200 students from 25 schools. League staff and volunteers also had the opportunity to talk with many of the teachers attending the festival, providing information about the Clean Water Challenge, stream monitoring training, and the threat posed by invasive species. We encouraged teachers to incorporate the importance of clean water and healthy fish and wildlife habitats into classroom lessons. The Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) gave its initial approval of a series of recommendations on the Army Corps of Engineers’ new strategic plan for recovery actions on the Missouri River. The recommendations – developed by the MRRIC fish, bird, and human considerations work groups – address a wide range of issues, including actions to recover threatened and endangered species and the Corps’ river management practices. MRRIC plans to finalize the recommendations in June. This is the first time MRRIC has had the opportunity to weigh in on the Corps’ five-year plan, which is part of a new Adaptive Management Plan that the Corps and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will start to implement later this year. The League has urged the Corps to select recovery actions that work with the river rather than against it as the Corps works to implement the Adaptive Management Plan. The League is also asking that the plan include benefits such as improved water quality, reduced flood risk, and increased outdoor recreation opportunities in addition to actions that will help recover the three listed species: the pallid sturgeon, least tern, and piping plover. The Corps will select actions from the Management Plan in October and begin implementing those actions to recover lost habitat along the river. The Corps of Engineers will continue above-average releases from the Missouri River reservoir system for the remainder of this summer. This is due to the above-average runoff from snow melt in the upper Missouri River Basin. The Corps acknowledged that its ability to reduce flood risks along the lower Missouri River decreases for locations downstream from Gavins Point Dam. This is due to the large unregulated drainage area in the lower basin and the 10 days it takes for water from Gavins Point Dam to reach the mouth of the river near St. Louis. At this time, the Corps and the National Weather Service do not expect any major flooding along the Missouri River this year; however, some flooding will occur on tributaries in the upper basin. The Corps also increased its 2018 runoff forecast for the Missouri River basin above Sioux City. The new estimate is 33.2 million acre feet (MAF) –131 percent of the average. (An acre foot is the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land one foot deep.) The projected increase is due to below-average April temperatures that delayed snowpack melt. With above-average May temperatures, the mountain snowpack is now melting very rapidly. High runoff into the reservoirs benefits many of the river’s authorized purposes, including hydropower, fish production, recreational access, and ample water for municipal and irrigation intakes. The Corps says the majority of the flood storage capacity of the Missouri River reservoir system is still available to capture snowmelt and summer rainfall. For more information or questions about the topics in this newsletter, please contact: Paul Lepisto Photo credits: Paul Lepisto (10) © 2018 Izaak Walton League of AmericaAll rights reserved. |