The conference culminated with a special Policy Forum, where recommendations were delivered directly to key politicians and decision-makers in the Mississippi River Basin. Currently, NGRREC is in the process of drafting a finalized version of the policy recommendations. NGRREC had a court recorder transcribe the videotape of the Forum, including statements by facilitators, panel questions, responses, and recommended changes.After final approval from the speakers, panelists and policy officials, look for the report to be posted here. Our work will not stop with the distribution of the final recommendations. NGRREC will continue to work with Policy Forum officials and professional organizations to distribute the individual recommendations to the targeted decision makers and/or management agencies identified in the recommendations. Additionally, several of the Policy Forum officials requested that we take the first recommendation from the Ecosystem Services topic (perhaps merging this with a similar recommendation in the Floodplain Connectivity topic) and rewrite this in the form of a presidential Executive Order. The conference was co-hosted by the National Great Rivers Research and Education Center and The Nature Conservancy.

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