LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) - Missouri River regulators hope a new advisory group to be set up by early next year will make the public more involved with environmental decisions facing the river.

Federal agencies have heard for at least the past 15 years that the public feels disconnected from environmental issues on the river, said Mike Olsen, Missouri River coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The group will advise regulators on environmental restoration in the basin and will be similar to the one working to develop a spring rise proposal for the river.

The group also will help with efforts to revive three federally protected species: the piping plover, least tern and pallid sturgeon, said Rose Hargrave, manager of the Missouri River Recovery Program for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. But participants will likely look at the river's entire ecosystem, Hargrave said.