The Meramec River drains 2149 square miles in the northeast corner of the Ozark Highlands of east central Missouri. The mainstem river winds 218 miles from the forested, rugged, and lightly populated upper watershed through the I-44 corridor to the urbanized lower watershed where it enters the Mississippi as a large floodplain river below St. Louis.  Tributaries include Courtois, Crooked, Dry, Dry Fork, Huzzah, and Indian creeks , the Little Meramec River, as well as the Big and Bourbeuse rivers, two major tributaries. The Bourbeuse enters the Meramec at river mile 64.0, and the Big River enters the Meramec at river mile 35.7.

For the 1998 Missouri Department of Conservation watershed inventory and assessment for the Meramec River, click here .

The Nature Conservancy (and partners) have identified the Meramec River and its tributary systems as both important areas of biodiversity significance as well as critically important to the conservation of biodiversity of the Upper Mississippi River Basin as a whole.  The Meramec River basin features high aquatic and terrestrial biodiversity and numerous rare, sensitive, and listed species and communities.  It has a very diverse fish assemblage of 125 fish species (collected since 1930). The crystal darter, a state listed species, is present in the lower Meramec Basin, along with other big river characteristic species dependent on the river's connection to the Mississippi, functioning floodplain, and relatively natural hydrologic regime (the Meramec River has no major dams or reservoirs).  Meramec and Bourbeuse river mussel populations include the federally endangered pink mucket, scaleshell, and possibly winged mapleleaf, as well as other candidate or rare species such as the spectaclecase, sheepnose, snuffbox, and salamander mussel. The Meramec River basin also contains 8 species of crayfish and many aquatic insect groups, including pollution intolerant species that require clear, well-oxygenated, unpolluted streams. Unusual macroinvertebrates found in the Maramec Spring system include the cave crayfish (Cambarus hubrichti) and a caddisfly, Glyphopsyche missouri Ross.  The Meramec and its tributaries are also highly prized and heavily utilized for sport fishing, paddling and floating, particularly the upper Meramec, Huzzah, and Courtois, and there numerous public lands and public accesses.Many conservation initiatives are already well established within the Meramec River basin, led by organizations such as the Missouri Department of Conservation, Ozark Regional Land Trust, Open Space Council, American Bird Conservancy, and many, many others. 

The goal of the Conservancy's CAP planning process this year is to work with active conservation partners and river basin stakeholders to develop a "blueprint for what conservation success like basinwide, focusing on addressing the highest priority conservation targets and threats, as well as identifying and finding ways to implement the most effective actions."

 [For documents and web links to materials, descriptions of the Meramec, and activities of conservation partners, click on "Files & Pages" to the left]

Partial list of active and participating conservation partners with programs in the Meramec: