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Missouri River

The Missouri River drains one-sixth of the U.S. and flows 2,341 miles from its headwaters in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River at St. Louis. Before 1944, when a series of federally authorized projects spurred its restructuring, the Missouri River represented one of North America’s most diverse and dynamic ecosystems. Pulses of rainwater and snowmelt carrying tons of sediment created an ever-changing landscape of meandering channels, chutes, sloughs, islands, sandbars, and backwater wetlands and woodlands. Today, six main-stem dams on the upper reaches of the Missouri have transformed one-third of the river into lake environments, and all of the 735 miles of river between Sioux City, Iowa, and St. Louis, Missouri, have been stabilized and channelized.

What to See: Flora

  • Bur oak
  • White oak
  • Red oak
  • Paw paw
  • Showy orchid
  • Western prairie fringed orchid
  • Big bluestem
  • Little bluestem

What to See: Fauna

  • Paddlefish
  • Pallid sturgeon
  • Lake sturgeon
  • Sicklefin chub
  • Sturgeon chub
  • Five-lined skink
  • Timber rattlesnake
  • Interior least tern
  • Piping plover
  • White-tailed deer
  • Red fox
  • Eastern chipmunk

Why the Conservancy Selected This Site
In 2004 Americans celebrated the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark Expedition; a journey of discovery that remains unparalleled in our country’s history. The explorers recorded a wealth of information about the natural history and human cultures encountered along an immense and diverse river. The Missouri has been greatly altered in the last 200 years—today, most of the river would not be recognized by the Corps of Discovery. The Nature Conservancy is building partnerships along the Missouri among groups who are united in the goal to protect and restore portions of the landscapes that greeted Lewis and Clark in 1804.

Despite limited access to aquatic biodiversity data, the Conservancy’s Central Tallgrass Prairie Ecoregional Plan recognizes the Missouri River as a major conservation target. Our goal is to catalyze a community-based conservation presence on the Missouri, focusing on the highly-altered reach from Yankton, SD to St. Louis, MO where the river joins the Mississippi.

What the Conservancy Has Done/Is Doing
These efforts have just gotten off the ground by hiring a Missouri River Program Manager. A first step will be working with conservation partners to restore riverine habitats lost within this system. We anticipate collaboration with public partners in these restoration effort to leverage public funding with private dollars.

Four Nature Conservancy state programs—in Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, and Kansas—lie along this portion of the river. A staff member dedicated solely to the Missouri River will integrate, energize, and maximize the efficiencies and achievements among these four state programs and the nascent partnerships each state office has developed.

Lean more about our restoration work on "The Big Muddy" from the perspective of  Tyler Janke, wetlands restoration specialist in the Conservancy's Missouri River program.