03-18-2004, 10:03 PM
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]KANSAS CITY, MO—The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers recently unveiled a 30-year, $1.3 billion plan to restore the Missouri River. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]In the past 200 years, the Missouri has been dammed, narrowed, deepened and straightened for commercial barge traffic—so much so that it is about 100 miles shorter than in pre-settlement times, according to the environmental group American Rivers. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]Under the plan, approximately 1,200 acres would be immediately established as a shallow-water habitat for spawning fish, while an unspecified amount would be designed to benefit nesting birds. All this while maintaining a seven-month navigation season for commercial barge traffic. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]The plan calls for conserving more water in northern states and "unbalancing" the three largest reservoirs in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Corps. would lower one of three lakes approximately three feet to let vegetation grow and then refill the lake, on a rotating three-year cycle. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]Corps. officials say it will re-evaluate the plan after three years.
[/size][/#000000][/font]
[signature]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]In the past 200 years, the Missouri has been dammed, narrowed, deepened and straightened for commercial barge traffic—so much so that it is about 100 miles shorter than in pre-settlement times, according to the environmental group American Rivers. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]Under the plan, approximately 1,200 acres would be immediately established as a shallow-water habitat for spawning fish, while an unspecified amount would be designed to benefit nesting birds. All this while maintaining a seven-month navigation season for commercial barge traffic. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]The plan calls for conserving more water in northern states and "unbalancing" the three largest reservoirs in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota. The Corps. would lower one of three lakes approximately three feet to let vegetation grow and then refill the lake, on a rotating three-year cycle. [/size][/#000000][/font]
[font "Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif"][#000000][size 2]Corps. officials say it will re-evaluate the plan after three years.
[/size][/#000000][/font]
[signature]