For Immediate Release: February 25, 2016

OMAHA, Neb. - The Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC) heard an update on the progress of the Missouri River Recovery Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to be released in December 2016, and specifically learned how the public would be able to comment on potential management actions.  MRRIC held its quarterly meeting Feb. 23-25 in Kansas City, Missouri, at the Hilton Kansas City Airport. The meeting agenda is available at http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/mrrp/mrric/.

An Independent Science Advisory Panel provided positive feedback on the current version of the Adaptive Management Plan and offered thoughts on modifications they believe would strengthen the plan as the next version is developed. Ms. Noreen Walsh, Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Mountain-Prairie Region, and Brig. Gen. Scott Spellmon from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Northwestern Division, were able to attend the meeting and discussed aspects of the developing Management Plan with members. The committee discussed how they could be involved in an adaptive management process that would follow the final EIS as the plan moves from development to implementation.  They also heard from the Independent Socio-Economic Technical Review panel about strategies for monitoring economic effects of plan implementation.

MRRIC is a 70-member committee that comprises stakeholders and representatives of Tribal, state and federal governments throughout the Missouri River Basin. This committee provides recommendations to federal agencies on the current and future activities of the MRRP. The committee makes its substantive recommendations by consensus.

For additional information regarding the MRRIC, please contact Dr. Michael Mac, committee chair, by e-mail at info@MRRIC.org. Web links related to the Missouri River recovery efforts are www.MRRIC.org and www.MoRiverRecovery.org. The committee, established in fall 2008, meets quarterly at various locations throughout the Missouri River Basin. It will begin the upcoming meeting having approved over 20 substantive recommendations addressed to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, which is responsible for endangered species protection and recovery, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates the bank stabilization and navigation project and the mainstem dams on the Missouri River.

MRRIC is staffed by RESOLVE, a Washington, D.C. dispute resolution firm (www.resolv.org), under a contract with the U.S. Institute for Environmental Conflict Resolution and with the assistance of federal agency staff.