The use and stewardship of the Mississippi River will be the focus of this week's "Upper Mississippi River Conference." River Action expects around 200 people will attend Wednesday and Thursday in Moline.
River Action Program Manager Carol Downey says the annual conference is for stakeholders from St. Louis up to Minnesota.
"It's to bring awareness to things that are happening and things that need to be done in terms of water quality, stewardship, conservation, and things like hydropower, infrastructure and transportation."
Downey says that for this year's conference it will be important to "address the elephant in the room" and talk about this year's record flooding. So, there will be a workshop on Wednesday entitled "we survived 2019's record flooding, so now what?"
"We really wanted to address the flooding issue, seeing that we had such a very wet and record flood season this past spring, and here were are in slightly flooded levels even today."
For those who don't participate in the workshop, there will be a bus heading to the Mississippi River Ecotourism Center in Camanche, where attendees will take an "eco-cruise" to see some of the wildlife and sloughs in the area. There will also be a separate tour that focuses on the beneficial re-use of dredge materials in the Quad Cities.
In addition, keynote speakers representing the National Park Service, the Mississippi River Cities & Towns Initiative, and the Illinois DNR will be featured at the conference.
It is set for Wednesday and Thursday at the Stoney Creek Hotel & Conference Center in Moline. For further details and registration, visit www.riveraction.org/UMRC.