To frame his story, Schneiders goes back to the nineteenth-century journals of fur traders and settlers and in the record of flora, fauna, floods, and human activity he finds evidence of rapid and disruptive change. Bison once had the greatest influence on the land, and Schneiders depicts an original bison and Indian trail networks on which were overlaid the first torts and towns and then the railroads, highways, and reservoirs that reconfigured the region forever.

The goal of this study is to assist in program management by pointing out problems, both recurring and unique to 1993, which hamper an effective response to natural disasters. Starting from a historical summary of flooding on the upper Mississippi and lower Missouri rivers, it then describes 1993's disaster. Next, the general approach of the White House and Congress to flood recovery is examined. The activities of individual U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies also receive attention. Most of the document focuses on the Soil Conservation Service's flood recovery program, new wetlands and levee policies, and the vexing problems encountered in this work. Finally, the Service's work in each of the nine flood states will be discussed in detail.