The Missouri River and Adaptive Management: Protecting Ecological Function and Legal Process

This article describes and comments on the management alternatives in the Revised Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Master Water Control Manual, Missouri River (RDEIS) as refined by the newly published National Academy of Sciences project and to assess those alternatives in the context of the eco-regulatory political history of the Missouri River and the new science of complex adaptive systems theory. It includes a general history of the regulation and management of the Missouri River, a procedural history and content summary of the RDEIS as well as the project report on adaptive management of the River by the National Academy of Sciences, and a descriptive overview of complex adaptive system theory both generally and as applied to environmental regulation. It concludes with a critical assessment of, and suggestions concerning, the revision of the Master Water Control Manual of the Missouri River.