OMAHA, Neb. - The final Environmental Assessment/Finding of No Significant Impact for the restoration of emergent sandbar habitat complexes in the Missouri River (North Dakota) has been approved and is available for download. The final EA determined that there are no significant impacts associated with removing and preventing vegetation on emergent sandbar habitat located within the Garrison River reach and upper Lake Oahe of the Missouri River between river mile 1381.0 and 1278.0.
The final EA is consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, as amended, the Council on Environmental Quality’s regulations for implementing NEPA (40 CFR 1500-1508), the Corps’ regulations for implementing NEPA (33 CFR 325 and Engineering Regulation 200-2-2) and other applicable environmental laws and regulations.
BACKGROUND: In 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a Biological Opinion in which the agency found the Corps’ operations on the Missouri River would not likely jeopardize endangered interior least tern and threatened piping plover populations if certain recommendations set forth in the BiOp were implemented. One of those recommendations is to restore emergent sandbar habitat as nesting habitat for these two species. In accordance with this recommendation, the Corps will begin vegetation control and removal activities on selected sandbars in 2013 and continue each spring and/or fall, as needed, until the fall of 2017 through the use of aerial and/or ground-based spraying of pre-emergent and/or post-emergent herbicide and mowing.
The final environmental assessment is available for viewing at: http://www.nwo.usace.army.mil/Missions/CivilWorks/Planning/EnvironmentalPlanning/FinalDocuments.aspx.
Release no. 20130815-001