From swampy plains to arid deserts, Missouri’s diverse terrain and climate results in rich species diversity, including many thousands of native animals and more than 2,000 native plants. This level of biodiversity is also reflected in the state’s economy. More than a million hunters and anglers live in Missouri and their activities help to support 45,600 jobs and generate $268 million in state and local taxes. Without protecting these natural resources, however, both the ecological and economic health of Missouri is endangered. This powerful link guides Missouri’s state wildlife action plan, which has identified 33 conservation opportunity areas, each with its own team of partners committed to a plan of action and the overall goal of benefiting wildlife throughout the entire state.
Missouri State Wildlife Action Plan
More about conservation in Missouri
SARP Contact: Ron Dent, Fisheries Research Chief, Missouri Department of Conservation
AQUATIC NUISANCE SPECIES (ANS)
MISSOURI ANS Management Project
Current Status of ANS Management Plan: Completed and in implementation stage.
SARP ANS Contact: Tim Banek, Missouri Dept. of Conservation
For more information: http://mdc.mo.gov/landown/invasive.htm
SARP ANS Coordinator:Jeffrey Herod
SOUTHEASTERN INSTREAM FLOW NETWORK (SIFN)
Missouri Instream Flow Project
Current Instream Flow Policy: None other than 7Q10 for water quality permits
SARP Contact: Bill Turner, Missouri Department of Conservation
SIFN Coordinator: Marilyn Barrett-O’Leary
Instream Flow Updates:
2009: The Missouri Department of Conservation is working towards an instream flow policy. As a first step, a river hydrologic classification system is being developed. Under Hydroecological Integrity Assessment Process (HIP), 147 gages were evaluated using cluster analysis of 171 hydro indices (all a function related to 10 flow components). Yielded 6 types, intermittent, perennial runoff-flashy, perennial runoff-low baseflow, perennial runoff-moderate baseflow, and perennial groundwater-stable, perennial groundwater-super stable. Classification does not include Missouri or Mississippi Rivers or ephemeral streams.
2010:While we have no official instream flow program within MDC, there are a few of us who spend a portion of our time on instream flow issues. MDC was able to weather the economic downturn via voluntary retirements and normal attrition, but since many retirements were at the upper levels of the agency, there is a need for a new round of upward educational efforts.
Missouri is a pure riparian doctrine state and neither MDC nor our sister agency, the Department of Natural Resources, have regulatory power over water rights. However, we have had some successes using our influence with partner agencies. This has been primarily related to FERC projects and specific instances where partners have requested flow prescriptions for the 404/401 process.
We recognize that future water issues may lead to changes in Missouri water law and are attempting to position ourselves to be ready when a tipping point occurs. In collaboration with the USGS we have done a hydrologic classification of our streams using the Hydrologic Integrity Assessment Process (HIP). We are currently finishing a report on the analysis software associated with HIP. The report primarily focuses on the utility of the HIP indices for various withdrawal scenarios for our different hydrologic stream types. We are also making progress in linking our hydrologic stream types to an ecological classification done for an Aquatic Gap Analysis. This will allow us to predict the hydrology of ungauged streams and to link with existing biological data.