River Ruling Benefits Wildlife

The Army Corps of Engineers on Sunday began lowering water levels along the Missouri River in response to a federal court order aimed at saving two endangered species of birds and one species of fish.

Over the weekend, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler temporarily ordered the Army Corps to reduce the amount of water released from its Missouri River dams this summer in a move with potentially major environmental, economic and political consequences.

American Rivers and several other environmental organizations had sought the order to protect the sandbar nesting grounds of the endangered birds -- the least tern and Great Plains piping plover -- and to help preserve the vanishing pallid sturgeon. They are at odds with the Bush administration and downstream interests, who are insisting the Army Corps maintain sufficiently high river levels for the barge industry and to provide cities and nuclear power plants with a dependable supply of water.

Conservation groups hailed Kessler’s ruling as the first time a federal judge has indicated the Army Corps’ management plan for keeping river levels artificially high violated the Endangered Species Act.

Officials of the Army Corps and the Justice Department said Sunday that the government is likely to appeal Kessler’s ruling.