The Mississippi River Conservation Initiative (MRCI) is the implementation phase of the Lower Mississippi River Conservation Committee’s (LMRCC) Aquatic Resource Management Plan, finalized in May 2000.

 Geographic Focus: MRCI focuses on the Lower Mississippi River Ecosystem (LMRE) which includes 954 miles of the  Mississippi River from its confluence with the Ohio River at Cairo, IL to its mouth in the Gulf of Mexico,  2.1 million-acre active floodplain and .7 million acres of backwater areas. Included in this area are over 3000 lakes.

 Activities: MRCI is comprised of three primary components: 1. Assessment of Needs and Opportunities, 2. Project Planning and Design, and 3.Project Implementation. Through this process the LMRCC, in partnership with a variety of government and non-governmental groups, will implement projects to restore aquatic habitat, improve water quality and promote sustainable economic development throughout the six state region.

 Progress to date: MRCI was formally launched in November, 2001 with the first in a series of state planning and coordination meetings in Jackson Tennessee. To date, all six state level planning meetings have been held.  Meetings were held in Paducah, Kentucky and Cape Girardeau, Missouri during 2002,  in Brinkley, AR and Vicksburg, MS during 2003, and in Baton Rouge, LA during 2004.

 The meetings are open to LMRE stakeholders and have included representatives from federal and state agencies, non-governmental organizations, landowners and recreation interests. The objectives of the meetings are

           1.     Identify habitat restoration/environmental quality and opportunities.

2.     Collect and disseminate information on the resource and conservation activities

3.      Raise awareness about the natural resources of the LMRE

4.      Identify information needs

5.      Build partnerships

 A total of  239 sites have been identified in Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana as critical habitat or potential project areas. These sites may be viewed on the planning maps (below) or on the state summary maps (left).

Planning Maps

Click on Index Map to see 1:100,000 scale planning maps.  High resolution digital and paper maps are available from LMRCC upon request.