NATCHEZ — Four local leaders will return from Dubuque, Iowa, today where they attended the fourth annual Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative annual meeting.

Natchez Mayor Butch Brown, Vidalia Mayor Hyram Copeland, Convention and Visitors Bureau director Kevin Kirby and Natchez Tricentennial Commission Executive Director Jennifer Ogden Combs all attended the four-day conference.

The theme of the conference, which boasted approximately 100 attendees and 25 mayors from communities along the Mississippi River, was “The Mississippi River: America’s Original Main Street.”

Brown said a big talking point of the trip was identifying invasive species in the Mississippi River that pose a threat to river habitats.

“There are several fish species that are threatening endangered species in the river,” Brown said. “These invasive fish, they weigh into our Mississippi River system and they are bottom feeders, so they go to the beginning of the food chain and take away nutrients from commercial fish.”

Finding ways to stabilize the river’s food chain, Brown said, was a big issue addressed at the conference.