SECOND REGULAR SESSION

House Concurrent Resolution No. 13

96TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES LOEHNER (Sponsor), FISHER, FITZWATER, ASBURY, DUGGER, GUERNSEY, CAUTHORN, LANT, JOHNSON AND KORMAN (Co-sponsors).

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            WHEREAS, the rivers and streams of the State of Missouri are a great natural resource and benefit to the citizens of Missouri and the aquatic life therein; and

            WHEREAS, these rivers and streams run through the heartland and fertile bottom lands that produce our abundant food supply and provide a large part of our agricultural income; and

            WHEREAS, the farmers and landowners who have lived and farmed along these stream banks for generations have the right to protect and preserve their precious soil so as to protect and continue their way of life; and

            WHEREAS, these streams need to be managed in a manner that is beneficial to the stream's aquatic life as well as the farmer's interest in protecting private property, financial interest, and ability to feed their family and yours; and

            WHEREAS, the federal and state agencies in charge of regulating in-stream activities, including stream bank stabilization, gravel removal and excavation, vegetation removal, or a combination thereof, are basing their decisions and practice approval on policy developed not on scientific study but solely on their priorities determined by these agencies and their commenting groups; and

            WHEREAS, the federal and state agencies as well as their commenting groups that are in charge of protecting the aquatic life and environment of these streams and rivers should base their decisions and practices on unbiased scientific studies that take into account all aspects of these streams, including flood control, soil conservation, gravel buildup, and the aquatic life, and not undertake actions to achieve policy goals; and

            WHEREAS, these federal agencies as well as their commenting groups should place as much importance on our farmers' fields, private property, and precious soils as the aquatic life in these streams:

            NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the House of Representatives of the Ninety-sixth General Assembly, Second Regular Session, the Senate concurring therein, hereby encourage our Governor and our Missouri Congressional delegation to demand these agencies review all policy decisions on in-stream activity, thereby promoting the use of sound scientific research and data that is produced from unbiased studies; and

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that our Missouri Congressional delegation demand federal and state agencies as well as their commenting groups base past and future decisions and practices involving any stream activity inside the high banks on unbiased scientific university studies along with practices that have been proven effective over generations of landowner implementing; and

            BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare properly inscribed copies of this resolution for the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Land Management and the Fish and Wildlife Service within the United States Department of Interior, the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the United States Department of Agriculture, the Missouri Congressional delegation, Governor Jay Nixon, the Missouri Department of Conservation, the Missouri Department of Agriculture, and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources.

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