George Cunningham

Omaha, Nebraska

I have lived in the Missouri River Basin (Basin) for the last 26 years, mostly in Omaha, Nebraska. I have a M.S. in Biology from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. At this same Institution, I have taught environmental science, conservation biology, ecology, and introductory biology courses for the Department of Biology. I have been an active participant in a number of environmental and conservation organizations in Nebraska for nearly 20 years. I am a member of the executive committee of the Nebraska Chapter of the Sierra Club. I have represented the Nebraska Chapter on a number of conservation issues, including state threatened and endangered species, water quality, science education, and Missouri River discussions. The Sierra Club is a national grass-roots environmental organization that represents approximately 750,000 members throughout the U.S. The Sierra Club is organized at the local, state, and national levels.

My involvement in Missouri River conservation management issues stretches back to my days as a graduate student sampling for native fishes in the channelized portion of the river in Nebraska. I assisted several environmental organizations in the 1990’s, offering to review their policy statements for scientific accuracy, particularly from an ecological perspective dealing with flow regime and sediment balance. My interest in native fish and riverine ecology has keep me involved not only in Missouri River issues, but issues of stream and riverine management throughout Nebraska, from protecting rare fish species in the headwater streams of the Nebraska Sandhills to instream flow issues on the Niobrara River.

I have been involved with the Sierra Club’s Missouri River Working Group for three years. This group’s work centers on educating the public, and especially Sierra Club members, about the needs for mitigation of lost habitat and ecosystem recovery of the Missouri River. I served as the Group’s representative during the Plenary Group deliberations of assessing the Basin’s potential for implementing a successful collaboration process for Missouri River recovery, as well as the Spring Rise Facilitated Process. These efforts used a collaborative approach to develop consensus-based recommendations. During my tenure, I work collaboratively with several tribal entities, state resource agencies, and other conservation organizations to bridge the cap between the needs and visions of various competing interests within the Basin. Although consensus was not reached in the Spring Rise Process, valuable relationships and insights of other user interests were realized during the debate process. The acceptance of all parties to use scientific inquiry and results to help determine outcomes for Missouri River ecological restoration through an adaptive management process was a milestone achievement for stakeholders in the Basin. I believe this success, along with the realization that river restoration is conservation action of interest to many Americans, will allow the next round of deliberations about Missouri River ecosystem recovery to move forward in a true consensus building fashion.

For comments or questions about this website, please contact: usiecr@ecr.gov. This page was last updated 7/17/2019.