Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee

Developing a management plan for the Missouri River

The Missouri River is a significant cultural, economic, historic, and natural center for people living in the Missouri River basin, and management of the river impacts their livelihoods, families, culture, and environment. Though controversies over water rights, water supply, navigation, flood control, and ecosystem protection have surged across this landscape for decades, all parties ultimately share a connection to the “Big Muddy,” the longest river in North America.

Since 2009, RESOLVE has served as facilitator for the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee (MRRIC), an ongoing collaborative forum for a diverse group of basin stakeholders, which is tasked with developing recommendations for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) on their work toward endangered species recovery in the Missouri River. RESOLVE provides meeting facilitation, mediation, and documentation support for the full Committee and its multiple work groups. MRRIC involves stakeholders from across the Missouri River basin, including representatives from eight states, as many as twenty-nine American Indian Tribes, thirteen additional federal agencies, and sixteen different interest areas such as agriculture, waterway industries, environmental groups, local governments, and flood control. With RESOLVE’s support, MRRIC has achieved consensus on over forty recommendation letters to the USACE and USFWS, helping to guide the agencies’ actions and priorities.

RESOLVE has worked closely with MRRIC and the lead agencies USACE and USFWS as they developed a Missouri River Recovery Management Plan, which includes a Science and Adaptive Management Plan (SAMP). The SAMP paves the way for the agencies and stakeholders to gather new information about the impacts of their efforts and to refine and adapt future actions accordingly. MRRIC and the lead agencies are now working together to implement the SAMP, one of the largest and most complex adaptive management efforts of its kind.

Many of the Committee’s recommendations have informed the Missouri River Recovery Management Plan, which was released in August 2018.