Vision and Goals for the next Three Years
1. Establish a Friends Group - Establish a fully functioning "Friends of the Missouri National Recreational River" group to allow the park greater flexibility and expand opportunities for protecting and enhancing the ORVs of the park and educational benefits to the local community. (Update: The Friends of the Missouri National Recreational River was established in July 2015. Visit their website for more information.)
2. Improve Recreation Opportunities and Use - Promote and expand recreational opportunities and visitor use by increasing facilities and providing informative, recreational information and materials to local and regional communities including the acquisition of Goat and James River Islands. (Update: The 800-acre Goat Island is now property of the Missouri National Recreational River).
3. Focus on the 59- and 39-mile Reach - Continue to develop a positive and greater presence in the 59- and 39-mile areas through improvements in: recreational access; tribal, community, and county relationships; interpretation and wayside exhibits; land protection; and maintenance.
4. Develop Outreach and Branding - Over the course of three years, the National Park Service developed the park's first ever visitor education film. "River of Change" features the Missouri National Recreational River (MNRR) in all seasons with stunning views of its scenery , fish and wildlife, ecology, geology, history, and recreational values that made it eligible for designation in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1978. The park film will become available for viewing at Ponca State Park, Niobrara State Park, Lewis and Clark Visitor Center (US Corps of Engineers) and the Lewis and Clark Recreation Area in 2019.
A secondary goal is the development of the MNRR Alert Signage and River Access Plan. The overall goal of this plan is to provide visiting motorists a unified system of directional signs alerting them to river access leading from secondary highways to each boat ramp in Nebraska and South Dakota. A secondary goal is to upgrade any river access area recognized in this plan by paving and / or improving ramp ingress and egress lanes, providing demarcated paved parking slips for both cars and boat trailers, and improve or add visitor amenities such as toilets, picnic shelters, fish cleaning stations, or river viewing platforms.
5. Create a 'Community of Conservation' - MNRR will continue to craft out partnerships to enhance land stewardship, land protection, and water quality. The park will promote ecological restoration through an exemplary program of resource monitoring, educational outreach, and scientific research to enhance park resources. Create a new generation of citizen scientists and future stewards of our parks by conducting fun, engaging, and educational biodiversity discovery activities.
