PLANNING THE RIVER'S NEXT 50 YEARS

The Middle Mississippi River Ecosystem Management Work Group formed in the wake of a 1993 report titled "Facing the Threat: An Ecosystem Management Strategy for the Upper Mississippi River." The report by the Upper Mississippi River Conservation Committee outlined environmental problems along the river and challenged government to devise a plan to combat them.

One of the work group members is Robert Hrabik, a Missouri Department of Conservation fisheries expert. He works with the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program in Jackson, a federal program that assesses water quality and changes to the land and fish on the Mississippi River.

Since the program began in 1991, between 200 and 300 Ohio shrimp have been collected in the river. The species, believed to have disappeared in the 1950s, at one time supported a shrimp fishery here.

Specimens of the endangered pallid sturgeon also have been discovered. The program found "young-of-the-year," the first time the current year's hatch has been seen in the wild.

Including river engineers, politicians and economic developers in an environmental work group is unusual, Hrabik said, but a step he hopes will build consensus into the plan.

The group is not about to recommend any changes that would interfere with navigation of the river, he says, because Congress has declared the river both an essential biological resource and a navigable channel.

No one can do anything to infringe on either designation, Hrabik said.