7846

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 7846
• Author: American River Management Society
• Title: Editor
• USFW Year: Series
• USFW - Doc Type: 1994
• Copyright Material: NO

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Locations in the Mississippi Headwaters corridor are protected by the fact that land is owned by a public agency.
Other locations are designated as protected for scientific and natural study purposes by action of state and federal
government. The critical variable is the disturbance of the landscape. The rankings favor locations where
disturbance could result in lost opportunities to use the locality to build human knowledge.

1 = Disturbed areas, where the original vegetation and topography has been substantially altered; river
corridor has been altered by dam or diversion; water quality monitoring is primary opportunity for
study;

2 = Shoreline vegetation and topography is about 50 percent disturbed; known natural and cultural sites
are protected by public land ownership;

3 = Shoreline vegetation and topography is about 50 percent disturbed; stretch features typical plant and
animal species; prehistoric and historic uses cited in literature at unrecorded locations; private land
ownership predominates;

4 = Shoreline vegetation and topography is not disturbed; unique plant and animal species represented;
development has a limited impact -- light residential, pipeline corridors; locations of cultural sites
known by literature or survey work; private land ownership

5 = Shoreline vegetation and topography not disturbed; stretch represents a transition zone between
typical and unique ecosystems; locations of cultural sites known by survey work; private land
ownership predominates; stretch is located near a community and has a high potential for development

Recreational Values: This values assesses the river stretch's potential for recreational development.
Recreational uses are understood to range across a wide variety of uses. Some recreational uses require little
infrastructure and do not have an intensive impact on the environment. For example, canoeing or hiking fits this
low-infrastructure, low intensity use. Other uses, such as motor boating require more infrastructure, such as an
adequate access with associated parking, and have a more intensive impact on the river and may even create
conflicts with other users. The critical variables are the intensity of modification required to the natural landscape
to allow the use, the intensity of the impact on the river and the potential to cause conflict with other users.

1 = River readily accessible from land and from water; access points show a high degree of modification
allows high impact uses, on the water and on the shorelands, that can result in user conflicts (indicated
by presence of developed parks and campgrounds; motor boating accesses and marinas); river generally
accessible to a variety of users at private and public locations.

2 = Landscape has been modified to allow uses of land and water, at fixed accesses points, providing
access and camping; uses range from motor boating to canoeing in summer and snowmobiling to
hunting in the fall and winter; access points located less than 10 miles apart.

3 = Access points to river available, at road crossings and at dermed access points, but recreational land
use is limited to water only access; uses conflicts can occur.

4 = Access points to river available, but greater than 10 miles apart.

5 = Little or no development for recreational use; access by water only at remote locations.

The Mississippi Headwaters Guide Book will be published in Fall 1994. MHB is now initiating a planning
activity where the inventory of values will be used to build management strategies for river protection. The
goals of this activity are twofold:

· To provide for a coordinated program of river protection and management, at the local level, that is
comprehensive and interdisciplinary, and

Rivers Without Boundaries 1994