AUTHORS: Greg Conover, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, MICRA Coordinator
ABSTRACT: The Aquatic Nuisance Species Task Force approved the national Management and Control Plan for Bighead, Black, Grass, and Silver Carps in the United States (National Plan) for implementation in 2007. The Invasive Carp Regional Coordinating Committee (ICRCC), a partnership of state, provincial, and U.S. and Canadian federal agencies and other stakeholders, has coordinated the development and implementation of an annual Asian Carp Control Strategy Framework (now called an Invasive Carp Action Plan) to prevent the introduction and establishment of invasive carp populations in the Great Lakes since 2010. Many of these projects are implemented in the uppermost 175 miles of the Illinois River and the Chicago Area Waterway System. In 2014, the United States Congress charged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, to work in coordination with the Secretary of the Army, the Director of the National Park Service, and the Director of the U.S. Geological Survey to lead a multiagency effort to slow, and eventually eliminate, the spread of invasive carp in the Ohio River Sub-Basin and the Upper Mississippi River Sub-Basin. In FY20, this Congressional direction was substantially expanded to be inclusive of the entire Mississippi River Basin. The USFWS works closely with the Mississippi Interstate Cooperative Resource Association (MICRA) to facilitate collaborative implementation of the National Plan in the Mississippi River Basin. The MICRA member agencies and their federal partners formed sub-basin invasive carp partnerships to develop and implement Invasive Carp Control Strategy Frameworks to step-down implementation of the National Plan in the Lower Mississippi River Sub-Basin (including Arkansas-Red-White Sub-Basin), Missouri River Sub-Basin, Ohio River Sub-Basin (including Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers Sub-Basin), and the Upper Mississippi River Sub-Basin. The sub-basin invasive carp partnerships provide for collaborative implementation of the regional Frameworks throughout the Mississippi River Basin.
