In the first week of May, 2012, I traveled to a remote location in western Nebraska to hunt the elusive turkey. I chose to hunt in one of Nebraska’s Wildlife Management Areas (WMA). Not all WMAs provide wildlife with good habitat. The ecological viability of the WMAs varies greatly. Many of the WMAs in western Nebraska are waste lands, abandoned or sold by their original owners because the land no longer possesses any economic value whatsoever. For instance, there is a WMA near Big Springs, Nebraska, that is nothing more than an old gravel pit that has filled in with water. The pit is surrounded by a thin belt of planted trees and invasive European grasses. I visited this “Wildlife” Management Area to see whether it contained any turkeys. It did not. I did not see a single living creature inside its borders. It took a real stretch of the imagination to consider this place as wildlife habitat. Certainly the loud, incessant traffic on Interstate 80, which darted past the site less than 50 yards to the south, did not induce birds and animals to inhabit the place. Continue Reading »
This fall, the Corps of Engineers is holding a series of meetings along the Missouri Valley to promote its interpretation of the flood of 2011 and to take questions from the public regarding the Army’s management of its Missouri River hydraulic system.
Since late May, Brigadier General John McMahon, Colonel Robert Ruch, and Jody Farhat have advanced a very specific interpretation of the flood, which contends: the flood was too voluminous to contain; the huge discharges from Gavin’s Point Dam resulted from freak rain events in Montana in May; the Army made no mistakes in its management of the Missouri River hydraulic system in the months preceding the deluge; and since 2010, the operation of the reservoirs for flood control trumped the seven other authorized purposes of the hydraulic system (including the storage of water for the navigation channel and hydroelectric generation). McMahon, Ruch, and Farhat have not strayed from the above storyline. Nor have any of them admitted that the Army holds any responsibility at all for the flood. Continue Reading »
In 1946, the Burt County (Nebraska) Bridge Commission sought the approval of the federal government (which has authority over the Missouri River) to build a bridge over the river linking Decatur, Nebraska, with Onawa, Iowa. Government officials approved the request with one stipulation. The new bridge had to be built over the planned course of the yet-to-be-constructed navigation channel, rather than over the existing course of the river, which flowed 500 feet to the east. Continue Reading »
Tagged Army Corps of Engineers, Decatur, Decatur Bridge, Fort Randall Dam, Iowa, Missouri River, Missouri River Flood 2011, Missouri River Navigation Channel, Nebraska, Onawa, Tieville Bend
U.S. Geological Survey hydrologists recently reported that the Missouri’s present flood is carrying far less sediment than previous floods. The reason is simple; the high flows are coming out of the Dakota reservoirs rather than from the Lower Missouri’s dirtier, uncontrolled tributaries. The upstream reservoirs are trapping the river’s silt load and discharging clearer water through spillways and outlet tunnels. Continue Reading »
Niobrara, Nebraska. The small community of Niobrara sits on a bluff on the south bank of the Niobrara River where it enters the Missouri. Since its founding in the 19th century, the town has had a difficult history with the river. In April 1881, the Missouri smashed into the first town site during its April rise. Cold slushy water and cakes of ice knocked down buildings and swept through streets. The residents rebuilt the town in the Missouri River bottoms, gambling that the river would not take the town’s second incarnation. In 1955, the Army closed the earthen embankment at Gavin’s Point Dam downstream at Yankton, South Dakota. The reservoir behind the dam soon filled and backed up to the foot of Niobrara. By the 1960s, buildings in low-lying neighborhoods began experiencing regular water damage from the ever-rising elevation of the riverbed in front of the town. The delta that formed at the head of Lewis and Clark Lake sent water into the basements of Niobrara’s buildings. In 1972, residents moved the town to higher ground. The old town site became a golf course and city park. The troubles with the Missouri appeared to be over. But the Missouri has come back. Continue Reading »
Placing responsibility for the Great Missouri River Flood of 2011 on God ignores all of the ways humans have contributed to the disaster. It also absolves those partially responsible for the flood. Even worse, it hinders us from learning from the flood so that we can prevent a similar scenario in the future. Off the top of my head, I can think of five ways humans brought on this flood.
First, the Missouri basin states have lost millions of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres in the past five years. CRP lands had either slowed or halted runoff into streams and rivers. Encouraged by high commodity prices, plains and prairie farmers engaged in a Great Plow-up that converted sod to corn. Montana lost nearly 400,000 acres of CRP land between 2006 and 2010. That equals 625 square miles. The two Dakotas and Montana lost 960,000 CRP acres in 2007 and another 335,000 CRP acres in 2008. That land area is equivalent to 2,023 square miles. Even more conservation land went into corn in 2009, 2010, and during this year’s planting season. As a result of the Great Plow-up, drenching rains now hit cultivated cropland and quickly drain into the Missouri or one of its feeder streams. Farmers, and their desire to maximize production and profit, contributed mightily to this flood. Continue Reading »
Tagged Army Corps of Engineers, Bismarck, Conservation Reserve Program, Dakota Dunes, Gavin's Point Dam, Iowa, Missouri River Flood, Missouri River Flood 2011, Missouri River Flooding, Missouri River Navigation Channel, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oahe, Ponca, Sioux City
The media outlets in Sioux City are publicizing the recent arrival of the Nebraska State Patrol’s SWAT Team at South Sioux City, Nebraska. Apparently, the highly trained para-military men are there to patrol and protect the levee on the outskirts of town. I saw three of the elite troopers today at a coffee house in Sioux City. They looked like they were ready for combat. With their skin-tight haircuts, jet black combat fatigues, handguns, and aggressive “up your’s” facial expressions, I seriously feared for the gophers, squirrels, dogs, or other burrowing creatures that might approach the levee. The SWAT Team is likely to drop any furry, four-legged critter that comes within a 100 yards of the levee with a .308 caliber sniper rifle. South Sioux City residents should feel alot safer with the SWAT Team in town. Continue Reading »
Ponca, Nebraska. In the 1840s, European-American settlers traveling westward to the Willamette Valley in the Oregon Country or to the Mormon Zion in Utah had to cross the Missouri before setting out over the plains. Upon arriving on the river’s banks, they noted its size. Many referred to the river as the “Wide Missouri” because of its great girth. Throughout the nineteenth century and into the twentieth century, the Missouri’s width averaged between 5,000 and 10,000 feet through the reach in western Iowa. But during the annual April and June rises, the river spread out even further. It wasn’t uncommon for the stream to grow to five miles or more in width. Beginning in the 1930s, the Army narrowed the river from Kansas City to Sioux City. Continue Reading »
Onawa, Iowa. With this past week’s water releases from Gavin’s Point Dam, the Missouri south of south of Sioux City, Iowa, is spreading out. West of the small farming community of Onawa, the river is moving into its former floodplain. Near the bridge over the Missouri between Onawa and Decatur, Nebraska, the river is at least a mile wide and growing. Standing next to Highway 175, it’s impossible to see the river’s north shore. The Missouri isn’t quite an inland sea here, but it is close to becoming one. Swallows fly above the engorged river, diving on the millions of mosquitoes, gnats, and flies that are flourishing in the marshy habitat formed by the floodwaters. The flood has been a benefit to insect life and all the creatures that feed on bugs. Dark river water has started to lap over the shoulder of Highway 175. At least one lane of this link between Nebraska and Iowa will be inundated later this week when the Army releases even more water from Gavin’s Point Dam. A small trailer park just off the highway to the north has already succumbed to the flood. The owners were seen wading through the water, hoping to salvage personal belongings from their sunken residences. It is dangerous wading through the floodwater. A person is in constant danger of stepping into an unseen hole and drowning in the filthy water. Looking down at the river from atop the Decatur Bridge, the Missouri resembles a racetrack as it speeds off to the south. The water in the center of the river is foaming and thrashing with waves, boils, and eddies. The river is moving fast as the narrowed and straightened navigation channel propels it forward. At Decatur, the river is stealthily creeping through corn rows on its silent approach toward town. The residents of Decatur are not happy with the situation. On the ramp to the toll bridge, someone has erected a sign that reads, “This Flood Brought to You By U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.”
