Nationwide Rivers Inventory Update 2024

New River | Credit: NPS

In 2024, the U.S. National Park Service (NPS) completed a federal lands update of the Nationwide Rivers Inventory (NRI).

The update integrated readily available planning information from an array of wild and scenic river-administering agencies including regional NPS staff, Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), and U.S. Forest Service (USFS).

The update removed 320 miles of rivers that have been designated as wild and scenic rivers, updated attribute information for existing NRI river segments, corrected existing geospatial data to reflect river shape and mileage more accurately, and added approximately 1,300 segments (nearly 10,000 miles) to the NRI.

The update brought the total number of segments to just under 4,500, and the total mileage in the NRI to approximately 90,000 miles.

As part of the effort, NPS released a new online interactive map where users can Explore the Nationwide Rivers Inventory.

Record Floods on USA Rivers

In the final days of 2015, record floods threatened communities throughout the Mississippi River Basin.

In late December, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) field crews recorded 18 preliminary record-high flood measurements along the Meramac River. Additional historic peaks were expected throughout the southern part of the state.

The National Weather Service reported that major flooding was occurring or forecast on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers and tributaries in Missouri, Illinois, and Kentucky, and the Arkansas River & tributaries in Arkansas.

In response to dangerous flooding, the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) issued river closures on the Upper Mississippi River between mile markers 184 and 179 and the Illinois River between mile markers 0 to 50. In other areas, high water safety advisories and high water towing restrictions were in effect.

Floodwaters were predicted to downstream, with significant river flooding expected for the lower Mississippi into mid-January.

Great Lakes - St. Lawrence River Water Quality

Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River beach water quality met government standards 76.5% of the time in 2015, according to a recent report from Swim Guide (www.theswimguide.org). By comparison, water quality standards were met 72.5% of the 2014 season.

Swim Guide compared monitoring results for 1,496 beaches around the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River and calculated the number of days beaches in each watershed passed water quality tests, failed water quality tests, or had no data. The findings published in the second annual Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Beach Report.

Swim Guide is a beach information service created by Lake Ontario Waterkeeper in Toronto. The resource offers water quality alerts, beach descriptions, photos, and directions for over 7,000 beaches in Canada, the U.S.A., as well as Baja Mexico, and New Zealand.

For more information, visit www.theswimguide.org.