LINCOLN, NE - February 3 - Conservationists today labeled the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers new budget for the Missouri River a "smoke-and-mirrors" tactic to avoid making changes in river management necessary to prevent species extinction and boost local economies along the Missouri through increased recreation and tourism.

With the release of the President's FY 2005 budget, the Corps announced it would seek $69 million in funding for a "Missouri River Recovery Program" to create habitat for endangered and threatened species along the channelized and flow-regulated river. This new budget request comes on the heels of a failed effort by the Corps to find $42 million in FY 2004 funding to complete the same projects.

The Corps continues to maintain that, despite voluminous scientific evidence to the contrary, species extinction can be prevented by maintaining unnatural flows on the river and simply restoring small pieces of habitat. The Corps promised to spend an additional $42 million in 2004 on increased habitat restoration to try and avoid jeopardizing endangered and threatened species on the Missouri, but announced last week that money would not be forthcoming.

"The Corps wants to use rock and bulldozers to create D-minus habitat for fish and wildlife near the river instead of using the river's own flow to more cheaply create A-plus habitat actually in the river," said Chad Smith, Director of American Rivers' Nebraska Field Office. "On top of that, the Corps can't even get the money they need to build the D-minus habitat."

Over the last 15 years, the Corps has attempted to revise the Missouri River "Master Manual," the guidebook used by the agency to manage the river's six big dams. The Corps has resisted reforming the operation of those dams to include a more natural river flow pattern, though flow restoration has been called for by the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and all of the fish and wildlife management agencies from the Missouri River basin states. Last summer, a U.S. District Court judge ordered the Corps to lower flows to comply with the Endangered Species Act.

"The Corps is once again making promises about the Missouri River they cannot deliver on," said Smith. "After 15 years of delay and denial, 'trust us' is no longer an acceptable way of letting the Corps manage the Missouri."

Additionally, the Corps' 2005 budget lumps together funding for the popular Missouri River Fish and Wildlife Mitigation Project with "new" money for largely undetermined "endangered species" projects. Many fear this will stall momentum behind the mitigation project and detract from important habitat restoration projects already underway along the lower river.

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