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0 100 miles
0 50 km
Arkansas &
Red
DRAFT
The America’s Watershed Initiative Report
Card project continued with a regional
workshop for the Arkansas River and Red
River Basins, held in Tulsa, Oklahoma on May
14–15, 2014. At the workshop, stakeholders
and experts from social, economic, and
environmental sectors identified easily
understood and transparent ways to measure
status and trends for the Arkansas River and
Red River Basins in relation to six broad goals.
Similar workshops will be convened in each
of the remaining basins and results will be
integrated into a report card for the entire
Mississippi River Basin.
Bassmaster Classic fishing tournament on the Red River.
Image courtesy of Shreveport–Bossier Sports Commission
Cattle grazing in Oklahoma. Image courtesy of
Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Association.
Aerial view of the Port of Catoosa in Tulsa. Image
courtesy of Oklahoma Dept of Transportation.
The map (top) shows land use in the Arkansas River and Red River Basins. The graph (bottom)
shows the gradient of average annual precipitation (in inches) across the basins from west to east.
AmericasWatershed.org/reportcard
America’s Watershed Initiative is a collaboration of
organizations, businesses, and agencies which will
bring a basin-wide perspective to the Mississippi
River Basin’s greatest challenges. Developing a
comprehensive watershed report card is an important
component of the Initiative. It will summarize and
communicate the status and trends in achieving
objectives for six broad management goals. The report
card results will encourage people and organizations
to engage in issues affecting the watershed.
Missouri
Arkansas &
Red
Upper
Mississippi
MOLINE, IL
CINCINNATI
, OH
LOUISVILLE
, KY
MEMPHIS, TN
ST
. LOUIS, MO
Lower
Mississippi
Ohio
Workshop participants:
Brian Haggard (Arkansas Water Resource Center,
University of Arkansas), Thomas Stiles (Bureau
of Water, Kansas Department of Health &
Environment), Lisa French (Cheney Lake Watershed,
Inc.), Carl Hayes (Cherokee County Health
Department), Stephen Greetham (Chickasaw
Nations), Jeremy Seiger (Dept of Agriculture,
Food & Forestry), Patrick Brennan (Ingram Marine
Group), George Herschel, Ronald Graber (Kansas
State University), Darrell Townsend (Grand River
Dam Authority), Carl Metcalf (Grand Lake O’the
Cherokees Watershed Alliance Foundation), James
Triplett (Grand Lake Watershed Alliance Foundation),
Robert Reschke, Matt Unruh (Kansas Water Office),
Shelly Morgan (Lake Texoma Association), Tom
Buchanan (Lugert-Altus Irrigation District), Michael
Kelsey (Oklahoma Cattlemen’s Assoc’n), Scott
Thompson, Jay Wright (Oklahoma Department
of Environmental Quality), Bret Sholar (Oklahoma
Department of Mines), Deidre Smith (Oklahoma
Department of Transportation, Waterways Branch),
Sue Ann Nicely, Diane Pedicord (Oklahoma Municipal
Brianne Walsh
Generating a report card requires participation
from managers, scientists, researchers, subject
experts, and other stakeholders knowledgeable
about resources and available data. The process
requires broad representation across sectors and
geographic areas throughout each basin. These
experts provide input on goals, values, desired
conditions, and indicators of watershed health in
each of the basins. The workshop process brings
different groups together to create a product
and promotes broad perspectives, dialogue, and
collaboration among different sectors and par-
ticipants. Information and feedback from other
sources unable to attend the workshops will be
sought to strengthen the report card. The Missis-
sippi River watershed includes parts of 31 states
and two Canadian provinces. The watershed
includes six basins, which will each have their
own indicators, scores, and report card results.
Stakeholders from all sectors will participate in
workshops in each basin. A report card for the
whole watershed will be developed using the
information from all of the basins.
The report card process and timeline
For more information:
Harald (Jordy) Jordahl, Director
America’s Watershed Initiative
[email protected]
americaswatershed.org
AmericasWatershed.org/reportcard
Arkansas River & Red River Basins
Report card workshop
League), David Engle (Oklahoma State University),
Ed Fite (Oklahoma Scenic Rivers Commission), JD
Strong (Oklahoma Water Resources Board), William
Hobgood (Ouachita River Valley Association),
Richard Brontoli (Red River Valley Association), Colin
Brown (Red River Waterway Commission), Herbert
Graves (State Association of Kansas Watersheds),
Kelly Holligan (Texas Commission on Environmental
Quality), Ruben Soils (Texas Water Development
Board), Michael Fuhr (The Nature Conservancy),
David Yarbrough (Tulsa Port of Catoosa), Jacob
Brister, Thomas Hengst, Lori Hunninghake, David
Jenkins, Colonel Courtney Michael Abate, Colonel
Courtney Paul, Colonel Richard Pratt (US Army
Corps of Engineers), David Taylor (Waurika Master
Conservancy District)
Science communication and
facilitation:
C. Wicks, B. Walsh, H. Kelsey, W. Nuttle, W.
Dennison, J. Thomas (University of Maryland
Center for Environmental Science)
A. Freyermuth (US Army Corps of Engineers)
America’s
Watershed
Summit 2014
Louisville, KY
Lower Mississippi
workshop
Memphis, TN
Ohio–Tennessee
workshop
Cincinnati, OH
Upper Mississippi
workshop
Moline, IL
America’s
Watershed
Summit 2012
St. Louis, MO
201420132012
Arkansas
& Red
workshop
Missouri
workshop
Springer
Muskogee
Little Rock
Amarillo
49.8
45.3
37.6
20.4
16.6
Oklahoma City
0 50 km
0 50 miles
OK
NM
AR
TX
DRAFT
DRAFT
DRAFT
Droughts, reservoirs, and diversity
Potential indicators for the
Arkansas River & Red River Basins
AmericasWatershed.org/reportcardAmericasWatershed.org/reportcard
America’s Watershed Report Card is designed to report on the status of achieving six broad goals developed at the
America’s Watershed Summit in September 2012. The goals were developed to reflect the things that people value
in the watershed. Potential indicators for each goal were determined at the Arkansas River and Red River Basins
workshop. The final list of indicators will be determined by several factors, including data availability and how well
they represent the goals.
The Arkansas River’s headwaters are fed by melting
snowpack in the Colorado Rockies. From Colorado,
the Arkansas River flows east and southeast through
Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas before reaching the
Mississippi River. At 1,469 miles, it is the sixth-longest
river in the U.S. and the second-longest tributary in
the Mississippi watershed. Beginning in Oklahoma,
there are 21 locks and dams, 18 of which are part of
the McClellan–Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System
that enables commercial navigation and enhances
recreational use. The system also provides water
supply, hydroelectric power, and flood control for the
lower Arkansas River Basin.
From its headwaters in New Mexico, the Red River
flows along the Texas–Oklahoma border and into
Arkansas before reaching its confluence with the
Mississippi River in Louisiana. The Red River Compact
between Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas
apportions the waters of the Red River and its
tributaries. High levels of naturally occurring chloride
in some surface waters of the basin are a concern,
and federally funded chloride control projects have
been operating there since 1962. Denison Dam on
the Red River near the Texas–Oklahoma border forms
Lake Texoma, the 12th largest reservoir in the U.S.
The dam was authorized for construction in 1938 for
flood control, power generation, conservation and
recreational purposes.
A conceptual diagram illustrates the main threats and key features of the Arkansas River and Red River Basins.
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Ecosystem services
Infrastructure services
Water supply
Maintain supply of abundant, clean water
• Designated use/303(d) list
• Aquifer depletion
• # days drinking water advisories
Transportation
Serve as the nation’s most valuable
river transportation corridor
• Draft restrictions
• Unscheduled stoppages
• Dredging low-use inland ports
Recreation
Provide world-class recreational opportunities
• Hunting/fishing
• Non-consumptive recreation
• Festivals/events/races
Economy
Support local, state, and national economies
• Per capita income by sector
• Total tonnage transported
• Employment by sector
Flood control &
risk reduction
Provide reliable flood control and risk reduction
• # people at risk
• Miles of levee inspected/certified
• River discharge capacity
Ecosystems
Support and enhance healthy
and productive ecosystems
Biota
• Benthic trawl fish
• Rare/threatened/
endangered species
Water
• Phosphorus & nitrogen
• Gulf hypoxia
• Flow regime
Habitat
• Bottomland hardwood
& marshes
• Secondary channel complex
Critical stakeholder cartoons:
• Army Colonel
• Cattle herder/rancher
• Recreation-- kayaking, bicyclist, family camping
• Oil/gas (hard hat/oil derrick in background)
• Farmer-agriculture
Arkansas Red issues and threats
Arkansas Red sub-basin features
Corn farming
Winter wheat
(Crop farming)
Cattle grazing
Logging
Drought
Aging
Infrastructure
Flooding
Water quality
Reservoir sedimentation
Harmful algal blooms
Sulfates
Nutrients
Invasive species
(Asian carp)
Steel manufacturing
Birding
Fishing tournaments
Shipping/
navigation
Forest
Irrigation
Hunting
Rare, threatened,
endangered species
Mississippi
yway
Locks and dams
Hydraulic
Fracturing
Trout
Water supply
Recreation
Hydropower
Underlying geology
Ogallala aquifer
Woodford shale formation
Chloride
Biodiversity
Fayetteville shale formation
Navigable river portion
Pig farming
Chicken farming
Lake
Texoma
Hope
Paris
Vernon
Sherman
Magnolia
Hereford
Amarillo
Texarkana
Shreveport
Wichita Falls
Mount Pleasant
Melinda
structure
Tulsa
Guymon
Pueblo
Branson
Wichita
Arkansas City
Emporia
Muskogee
Woodward
Springer
McAlester
Tucumcari
Alexandria
Dodge City
Great Bend
Little Rock
Coffeyville
Springfield
Garden City
Fayetteville
Poplar Bluff
Oklahoma City
Colorado Springs