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Mississippi River Restoration Programs
- Why Restore the Upper Mississippi River?
- What is the Environmental Management Program?
- What is the Long-Term Resource Monitoring Program?
- What are Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects?
- Describe the Mississippi Water Level Management Program
- What is the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Plan (NESP)?
- Why Restore the Upper Mississippi River?
- The Upper Mississippi was a free flowing river until the locks and dams were constructed in the 1930s to provide a 9 foot shipping channel. When the system was completed the river was transformed into a series of navigation pools, which formed a stairway of water from St. Paul to St. Louis. This change inundated vast amounts of river valley, creating extensive backwater lakes, marshy meadows and deep sloughs. Initially these pools provided abundant habitat for fish and wildlife, but the quality of this habitat gradually deteriorated over time, particularly in the lower portion of the pools.
- The upper one third of each pool is a mosaic of channels and wooded islands and looks very much like it did before the locks and dams were built.
- The middle one third of each pool is a transition area with abundant backwater marshes and grassy islands.
- The lower portion was extensively flooded after the dams were built, creating expanses of open water with numerous islands.
- Environmental Management Program
- In 1986 with encouragement from citizens and stakeholders Congress formerly recognized the upper Mississippi River System as both a nationally significant ecosystem and a nationally significant commercial navigation system. Congress also recognized the need to balance these purposes and established the Environmental Management Program (EMP) to support the needs of the ecosystem.
- What is the Long-Term Resource Monitoring Program ?
- The Long-Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) is conducted by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with the Corps of Engineers and the states of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Personnel at six field stations collect data on water quality, vegetation, and fish. Monitoring results help researchers to better understand the system, forecast future conditions and provide early warning of potential problems. Additional information is provided by researchers that delve into specific questions about the river’s ecology. Together, research and monitoring document habitat changes over time and aid in the development and evaluation of management alternatives including the success of the habitat projects.
- Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects
- Indian Slough/Big Lake
- Petersen Lake
- Finger Lake
- Island 42
- Spring Lake Peninsula
- Spring Lake Islands
- Polander Lake
- Trempealeau NWR
- Bank Stabilization
- Long Lake
- Lake Onalaska
- I-90 Bay/East Channel
- Pool 8 Islands, Phase I
- Pool 8 Islands, Phase II
- Pool Slough
- Blackhawk Park
- Lansing Big Lake
- Conway and Phillip Lakes
- Capoli Slough
- Pool 9 Islands
- Cold Springs
- Harper Slough Islands
- Bank Stabilization
- Ambro Slough
- Bank Stabilization
- Bussey Lake
- Bertom and McCartney Lakes
- Pool 11 Islands, Sunfish Lake
- Pool 11 Islands, Mud Lake
- Guttenberg Ponds
- The Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects (HREPS) benefit fish and wildlife by restoring lost habitat or protecting existing habitat within the floodplain of the Mississippi and Illinois Rivers. In the past 20 years over forty-eight projects have been constructed affecting more than 75,000 acres of river and floodplain habitat. More projects are in various stages of planning, design and will be constructed as funding becomes available.
- Teams of biologists, mangers and engineers from the Corps of Engineers (COE), five upper Mississippi River states, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service join with private citizens and organizations to select, design and carry out the habitat projects.
Habitat projects use a variety of techniques or tools to restore or protect habitat for fish and wildlife including: island building, backwater dredging, shoreline stabilization (both island and river banks), and building control structures to regulate flow and water level management facilities.
Upon completion the projects are monitored to evaluate their performance. Project designs continue to evolve and improve, and many innovative techniques for restoring habitat on large rivers have been developed. This process has resulted in the development of different restoration techniques and approaches to meet diverse environmental goals. For example, Phase III in Pool 8 is currently under construction and the island design includes sandy areas for turtle nesting, mudflats for waterbirds, and dynamic shorelines for shorebirds. Seed islands are also being used to harness the silt and sand carried by the river. The material will deposit on and downstream from the seed islands which will provide quiet areas for plant growth and- as a result- more habitat for fish and wildlife - Water Level Management
- In order to restore the fish and wildlife habitat that has been lost on the river, managers have been rebuilding islands, as well as restoring channels and deep water habitat through EMP projects. Even with these restoration projects, important plant beds only partially recovered. Emergent plants that grow in shallow water and provide important food and shelter for fish and wildlife have been particularly affected by changes in the river and slow to respond to improvements. Water level management provides a way to restore the necessary seasonal fluctuation in water levels that favors conditions needed for reestablishment of these plants.
- Temporarily lowering water levels during the summer exposes the river bottom, allowing seeds to germinate and encouraging beds of aquatic plants, such as arrowhead and bulrush to expand. A drawdown of Pool 8 was implemented during the summers of 2001 and 2002. Monitoring results indicate that the drawdowns were very successful in establishing perennial emergent aquatic vegetation. A similar drawdown was implemented in Pool 5 in 2005.
- Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP)
- Currently the Corps’ NESP recommendations remain pending in Congress. In the interim, Congress has been funding preliminary engineering and design (PED) work since FY 05. ...more from the Upper Mississippi River Basin Association .
There are essentially three different sections within each pool.
Changes in River Habitat
The dams maintained high and relatively stable water levels in the lower portion of the pools which made the islands vulnerable to erosion from waves, ice and river currents. Over time many of these natural islands eroded away which set a chain of events into motion. Island loss allows more wave action and river currents in the backwaters, which can uproot plants and keep sediment suspended. The resuspended sediment increases turbidity levels in the water, thus reducing the amount of sunlight that penetrates the water and is available for plant growth. The aquatic plants that grew in the shallow water bordering the islands were affected by these changes and many of the formerly lush beds diminished in size or disappeared. In addition, sand and silt carried by the river gradually filled in the channels and deep holes. As a result critical fish and wildlife habitat in the lower portion of the pools was lost or destroyed.
The EMP, which is under the direction of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, has two components, the Long Term Resource Monitoring Program (LTRMP) and Habitat Rehabilitation and Enhancement Projects (HREPS). Together, these two components are designed to monitor the river’s health as well as restore habitat along the 1200 miles of the commercially navigable portion of the Upper Mississippi and Illinois Rivers and lower sections of several major tributaries.
Over the years, the Water Level Management Program was developed to help restore another needed component for river health. Recently, the Navigation and Ecosystem Sustainability Program (NESP), a new river ecosystem restoration program led by the U.S Army Corps of Engineers is designed to develop a 50-year vision for navigation improvements and ecosystem restoration on the Upper Mississippi River.
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