Second-Term Co-Chair: Cole Harty, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency
First-Term Co-Chair: Amy Kretlow, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
In 2003 MICRA began hosting the Mississippi River Basin Panel (MRBP) on Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) as part of a national network of 6 regional panels (i.e. Great Lakes, Gulf and South Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Western), organized under authority of the National ANS Task Force, headquartered in Washington, D.C. The ANS Task Force was established by the Nonindigenous Aquatic Nuisance Prevention and Control Act of 1990. The National ANS Program is intended to coordinate governmental efforts related to ANS in the United States with those of the private sector and other North American interests.
The ANS Task Force invited MICRA to begin sponsoring the MRBP in 2001. An organizational strategy was developed by MICRA and approved by the ANS Task Force in 2002, and an MRBP organizational meeting was held in July 2003. Since actions of the ANS Task Force and the MRBP fall under regulation of the Federal Advisory Committee Act, MICRA maintains an Aquatic Invasive Species Committee for autonomy with regard to actions the association takes on specific ANS issues. Thus, positions and actions taken by the MRBP and MICRA with regard to various ANS issues may not always parallel one another.
For more information on the MRBP visit www.MRBP.org