Acting Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Rachel Jacobson joined private landowners, conservation organizations and natural resource agency leaders to celebrate partnership efforts in association with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (USFWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program in Missouri, recognizing the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership as a signature demonstration of partnering for America’s Great Outdoors Rivers Initiative.

The Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence is the convergence of the two largest rivers in North America encompassing nearly 300,000 acres of lands predominantly in private ownership.

The Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership seeks to promote a balance between fish and wildlife habitat and agriculture and community development. Since 2004, the Missouri/Mississippi Rivers Confluence Conservation Partnership has protected more than 21,000 acres of private land, and restored and enhanced more than 8,000 acres of wetland habitat on private land in Pike, Lincoln, St. Charles and St. Louis counties. Wetlands provide migratory habitat for millions of migrating waterfowl, shorebirds, marsh birds and neotropical migrants in spring and fall. The area supports 68 state-listed species and five federally-listed plants and animals.