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straightened, making it more than 200 miles shorter than the river at the time of Lewis and Clark. Workers also narrowed the channel so the water would flow deeper and faster, helping boat operators and making it self-scouring, which removed the need to dredge it.
• But several species have suffered as tens of thousands of acres of shallow-water habitat disappeared. Wild populations of pallid sturgeon, a dinosaur-era relic that can live more than 50 years and weigh up to 80 pounds, are expected to disappear from the Missouri River by 2018. That will leave only hatchery-reared pallid sturgeon in the river.
• Tom Ball of the Sierra Club said it's wrong to think that environmental projects come at the expense of flood protection. He said that excavating shallow areas along the main channel for the pallid sturgeon and other wildlife also could make the river less flood-prone, because that new habitat provides more capacity for the waterway in high-flow years.
• "A lot of the work that needed to be done has been put on hold," said Ball, who serves on the Missouri River Recovery Implementation Committee, which advises the corps and other federal agencies on river recovery efforts, including the study before it was defunded. The committee's members include eight states, several American Indian tribes and people representing interests such as navigation, irrigation and recreation.
• "This," he said of defunding the study, "is not the way to avoid jeopardy."
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